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niiU'XiRlIES l\LITTi,E A^'D JAMES JBTiiDW^^, 



LIFE 



OF THE 



HON. JEREMIAH SMITH, LL.D 



MEMBER OF CONGRESS DURING WASHINGTON'S ADMINISTRATION, 

JUDGE OF THE UNITED STATES CIRCUIT COURT, 

CHIEF JUSTICE OF NEW HAMPSHIRE, ETC. 



BY JOHN H. MORISON 



BOSTON : 

CHARLES C. LITTLE AND JAMES BROWN. 

1845. 



"O 



STN\8 



Entered according to Act of Congress, iu the year 1345, 

By John H. jMorison, 

in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusett- 



boston: 

PRINTED BY FKEEMAN AND BOLLES, 
WASHINGTON STREET. 



PREFACE. 



After Judge Smith's death, in the autumn of 
1842, his papers were placed at my disposal, and 
from them, chiefly, this memoir has been prepared. 
Scarcely a document of any kind has been here in- 
troduced that was ever before published ; and where 
facts, before known, are stated, I have usually done 
it on the authority of the original evidence to be 
found among Judge Smith's papers. 

Many of the letters here given are from the origi- 
nal draughts which he preserved, and will sometimes 
be found to differ verbally from the copies that were 
sent. He was in the habit of transferring to his 
common-place book whatever particularly struck him 
in his reading, accompanying his extracts often by 
remarks of his own. It is possible that, in two or 
three instances, I may have copied as his, what he 
had only transcribed from others. 



IV PREFACE. 



It can hardly be necessary to say to the intelH- 
gent reader, that I am not to be held responsible 
for Judge Smith's actions or opinions, but only for 
the accuracy of my statements in respect to them. 
I have endeavored to give a faithful transcript of his 
mind and character, and have knowingly withheld 
nothing from the fear of any unfavorable influence it 
might have on his reputation. The errors and fail- 
ings of distinguished men are not the least instruct- 
ive part of their lives. 

The preparation of this biography has been to me 
a work of grateful affection, in which I have been 
cheered and aided by the kindness of men, whom 
it might savor of ostentation here to name; and I 
cannot now dismiss it without the hope and the 
prayer, that it may do something for the cause of 
public justice, of private intelligence and virtue, and 
that the picture especially, which it contains, of an 
old age, happy, useful, and honored, may be not 
without its influence on others. 

J. H. M. 
Salem, April 14, 1845. 



CONTENTS 



CHAPTER L 

1759 — 1786, 

Pago 
Birth — Childhood — In School — At College — - Teacher 

and Law Student at Barnstable, Andover, Salem. . 1 



CHAPTER n. 

1786 — 1790. 

At the Bar — Influence in the Town of Peterborough — In 
the New Hampshire Legislature. .... 26 

CHAPTER HI. 

1791 — 1795. 

In Congress — First Impressions — Invalid Pensioners — 

Hamilton's Assumption of State Debts — Indian War 

Origin of two Parties — Madison's Tariff — French Pol- 
itics — Democratic Clubs, &c. . ... 45 



VI CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER IV. 

1795 — 1797. 

In Congress — Jay's Treaty — Fisher Ames — Mr. 
Smith's Marriage — Washington. .... 75 

CHAPTER V. 

1797 - 1801. 

Fourth Term in Congress — Difficulties with France — 
Settled in Exeter — United States District Attorney — 
Interest in Politics — Judge of Probate. . . 123 

CHAPTER VI. 

1801 — 1809. 

Judge of the United States' Circuit Court — Chief Justice 
of New Hampshire — Influence and Character as a Judge 

— His Charges to the Grand Jury. . . . 143 

CHAPTER YH. 

Judge Smith's Political Feelings — Joseph S. Buckminster 

— Fisher Ames — Letters to Mrs. Smith — Death of 

his Youngest Son. ...... 212 

CHAPTER YIII. 

1809 — 1810. 

Governor of New Hampshire. ..... 244 

CHAPTER IX. 

1810—1820. 

Mr. Smith at the Bar — Judiciary Act of 1813 — Chief 
Justice — Judiciary Act of 1816 — Mr. Smith again at 
the Bar. . ' 260 



CONTENTS. Vll 

CHAPTER X. 

1820. 

Retires from Business — Fortune — Family — Tempera- 
ment — Occupation in Retirement 284 

CHAPTER XI. 

1820 — 1829. 

William Smith — Journey to Niagara — Mrs. Smith's 
Death — Ariana, her Sickness and Death. . . 307 

CHAPTER Xn, 

1829 — 1830. 

William Smith — His Sickness — Goes to Mississippi — 
His Death 348 

CHAPTER Xni. 

1830 — 1834. 

Judge Smith's Studies — Lectures on the Pursuit of 
Knowledge — Second Marriage — Sayings and Letters. 365 

CHAPTER XIV. 

1834 — 1835. 

Lectures on Washington, Franklin, Judge Parsons — 
New England Jurisprudence. .... 407 

CHAPTER XV. 

1835 — 1838. 

Journey to the South and West — Letters — Orphan Child 
— Intercourse with Children — Wit. . . . 431 



VIU CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER XVI. 

1838 — 1839. 

Judge Smith's Old Age — Youthfulness of Feeling — Ha- 
bit of Comparing the Past and Present — Interest in 
New Books ; in the Young ; in Education — Intercourse 
with Young Ladies — Letter to Miss Ross. . . 452 

CHAPTER XVn. 

Letters — Advice to Joel Furber — Judge Smith sells his 
place at Exeter — Resides in Dover — Religious Views 
and Character — Last Acts — Sickness — Death. . 481 



LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 



CHAPTER I. 

1759 — 1786. 

BIRTH - — CHILDHOOD IN SCHOOL AT COLLEGE 

TEACHER AND LAW STUDENT AT BARNSTABLE, 

ANDOVER, SALEM. 

Jeremiah Smith was born in Peterborough, New 
Hampshire, the 29th of November, 1759. An at- 
tempt had been made to settle the town as early as 
1739, but the inhabitants were driven off several 
times by the Indians, and no families were estab- 
lished there till 1749. From that time, though hav- 
ing to deal with a rugged soil and all the hardships 
of a first settlement, the httle colony, embosomed 
amid the mountains, went on increasing ; and, in 
1759, when they petitioned for a charter, there were 
from forty-five to fifty families, living mostly in log 
houses, and having few of what are now considered 
the essentials of life. 
1 



y LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 

Jeremiah was the fifth of seven sons. His father, 
WilHam Smith, who, hke the rest of the colonists, 
had immigrated from the north of Ireland, was, on 
the paternal side, Scotch, and on the maternal, of 
English descent. This will account for his being the 
only man in the town, at that time, who did not 
speak a broad Scotch dialect. He was modest, gen- 
tle, discreet, and devout. No man in the infant 
settlement was more respected for the substantial 
qualities of mind and character. He was a justice 
of the peace, and, in 1774, a member of the Provin- 
cial Congress. He wrote a good hand, and after he 
was an old man took pleasure in referring to a com- 
pliment he had received when a boy, from his school- 
master in Ireland, who wrote in his copy-book, 

" William Smith, of Moneymar, 
Beats his master far and avvar ; 
I mean in writing, 
Not inditing. " 

On the 3Ist of December, 1751, "the coldest 
day he ever knew," he married Elizabeth, daughter 
of John and Margaret Morison. She was a woman 
of energy and spirit, and, like many such women, 
" kept the scold a-going," ' as I was told by an old 
man, who remembers her as she was more than 
eighty years ago. She had ten children in twelve 
years, but found time to engage both in the in-door 
and out-door work. She assisted in harvesting the 

1 That the scolding was not so incessant as some that prevailed in 
the neighborhood, may be inferred from the answer of Judge Smith's 
elder brother to Mr. Miller. " Johnny," said Mr. Miller, " does your 
mother scold ? " " Yes," said Johnny, " sometimes." " That 's not 
always ; my wife scolds etamally." 



LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 6 

corn, and was known to dig sixteen bushels of pota- 
toes in a day. She was an excellent manager of her 
household affairs. The question, what they were to 
have to eat, was never allowed to be asked by the 
children ; and they went through life, like Dr. Frank- 
lin, who had been brought up under a similar regu- 
lation, with great indifference to such things. One 
of the sons, however, who was afterwards a member 
of congress, once wished that he " was a king ; for 
then he would have as much barley broth as he 
wanted to eat." One of the daughters once came 
home crying, and told her mother that the httle girls 
whom she had been visiting laughed at her, because 
she had not on a jerkin. ^' Never mind," said her 
mother, " ye'll hae jerkins when they hae nane." 
The prophecy was a true one. The two silk gowns 
that Mrs. Smith had before she was married, were 
the only ones she ever owned, and are now in the 
possession of her grandchildren. She never wore 
them, even to meeting, except on sacrament days 
and when her children were to be baptized. Her 
linen aprons, the only article of finery worn by her- 
self or daughters, were washed and plaited once a 
year. They were carried in the hand, put on as 
they were entering the meeting-house, and folded up 
" in the last singing." There was one handsome 
baby's dress, which went down successively to all ten 
of the children. 

Mrs. Smith was a good singer of Scotch songs ; 
her own children, as well as those of the neighbors, 
were always glad to leave their noisy sports, and 
crowd round her to hear, her sing. Her notions of 



4 LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 

home discipline were not of the most indulgent kind. 
It is said that once, on returning from her brother-in- 
law's, she said to her husband, " I 've been to Samooel 
Moore's, and there's family government, so there is ; 
and if you was worth your ears, you 'd keep your 
boys at home." Her husband, having calmly heard 
her through, asked if she remembered the calf they 
kept tied in the barn so long. " Ay, ay." " And 
do you mind that when we let it out, it run till it 
broke its leg ? " It is said that on some unusual oc- 
casion, a husking, perhaps, or log-rolling, a neigh- 
bor's punch-bowl had been borrowed. Jerry, as he 
was always called, playing about the room, upset a 
shelf. In the confusion that ensued, his mother, of 
course, attended to her maternal duties first, and gave 
the boy a smart whipping. But on going back, and 
finding, to her consternation, that neighbor Miller's 
punch-bowl had been broken, she concluded that the 
punishment had not been at all proportioned to the 
offence, and, seizing the child, whipped him severely 
a second time. She was, however, a woman of sound 
sense and kind feelings ; and, notwithstanding the 
punch-bowl, was generally much more indulgent to- 
wards her children in practice than in theory. Jere- 
miah could remember but two or three whippings 
that had fallen to his share. 

A story, with which Judge Smith used to amuse 
the infancy of the son of his old age, may be given 
here as it is told by his son. " When Jeremiah was 
about three years old, he and his two elder brothers, 
William and James, playing about the well, fourteen 
feet deep, were reaching over to see which could 



LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. O 

reach the farthest stone. Jeremiah, in his zeal to go 
beyond the others, reached so far as to lose his bal- 
ance, and fall in. James and William rushed into 
the house, and waked their mother, who was lying 
down, and the only person in it, with the sound of 
' Jerry 's in the well, Jerry 's in the well ! ' She hast- 
ened to the well ; but said, " he is not here, I see no- 
thing of him." Presently a circle appeared in the 
water, and a little white head rose to the surface. 
Her screams attracted the attention of Mr. Miller, 
who was hoeing in a neighboring field, and who, 
with the reckless courage of an insane man, (which 
he was at intervals,) went directly down into the well, 
and, as the little white head rose again for the last 
time to the surface, seized it by the hair and shouted 
' Let down the bucket.' The little boy was put into 
it, drawn safely up, and, after being rolled on the 
grass, was soon perfectly restored." Jeremiah had 
two other escapes from drowning, almost as narrow 
as this. 

By spinning and weaving linen, Mrs. Smith did 
her full share towards supporting the family. Once, 
after Jeremiah had got a little book knowledge, he 
undertook to comment on his mother's language, as 
ungrammatical. " But wha taught you langage ? " 
she replied. '' It was my wheel ; and when ye '11 hae 
spun as many lang threeds to teach me grammar as I 
hae to teach you, I'll talk better grammar." 

Mrs. Smith was a strict Presbyterian in her faith, 

and in truth a devout woman. A niece of hers, a 

young orphan girl, who lived in her house, had been 

guilty of some great offence, and there was a gather- 

1* 



6 LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 

ing of the connections to consider what should be 
done. A sister of Mrs. Smith, who was looked upon 
as one of the elect, proposed to " gar her into the 
barn to pray ; " as if the poor, half-witted, friendless 
thing were not fit even to be prayed with, except 
among the cattle Mrs. Smith indignantly rejected 
the proposal ; but it had made on the minds of her 
children an impression as lasting, as it was unfa- 
vorable to everything like a proud and sanctimo- 
nious faith. 

Among those who visited much at the house, and 
whose influence undoubtedly continued through life 
with his nephews, was Mrs. Smith's brother, Moses 
Mori son. He was the wit of the town, and had a 
rare faculty of entertaining the young by his extem- 
pore romances. Many anecdotes of him are handed 
down, full of the peculiar humor for which the 
Smiths were afterwards distinguished. He had been 
building a mill, in a neighboring town, for a man 
named Patterson, and on his return home was asked 
if Patterson had a good mill-seat. " Ay, very good." 
" And has he plenty of water ? " '' Ay, plenty ; but 
he maun cart it foure miles." Once he was building 
the trough in a cider-mill for Mr. Smith, who had 
saved for the purpose some particularly nice plank, 
which he did not like to waste by cutting them off* at 
the proper length. His sons remonstrated against hav- 
ing the trough so long. But he appealed to uncle 
Mosey, if it could not be made the full length of the 
plank. '^ Ay," was the reply ; and the father looked 
with a sort of triumph towards the boys — "ay, but 
the mare maun aye jump the trough." It was he 



LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 7> 

who thus described his neighbor Deacon Duncan's 
skill in hewing. " As I was ganging," said he, 
" through the woods, I heard a desprite crackling, 
and there I found a stick of timber that Deacon 
Duncan had hewn, sae crooked that it could nae lie 
still, but was thrashing aboot amang the trees. I 
tauld him he maun gang and chain it doon, or it 
wad girdle the hale forest." '' Deacon Moore," he 
said, " made a ladder, and it was sae twisting, that 
before he got half way to the top, he found himself 
on the under side, looking up." These stories would 
be too trifling to tell in a serious biography, were it 
not for their influence on the young. No one can 
understand, in some of its most important particulars, 
the character of Jeremiah Smith, without becoming 
acquainted wath the peculiar wit and pleasantry of 
the race to which he belonged. 

They were a serious and devout people. No- 
where, among the first settlers of New England, 
every part of which was sought for a religious pur- 
pose,' were the ordinances of religion more solemnly 
regarded, or its truths more reverently received. 
And yet there w^as a love of merriment and wit 
mingling strangely with the most serious concerns. 
Judge Smith used to say, that they went to meeting 
on Sunday, practised all that was good in the sermon 
through the week, and laughed at all that was ridi- 
culous. They were a Scotch race, who had been 
for two or three generations in Ireland, and they 
bore the marks of their double origin. There was a 

' It has been said of the settlers at Strawberry Bank, (Portsmouth,) 
that they professed to have come not to serve God, but to catch fish. 



8 LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 

grotesque humor, and yet a seriousness and pathos, 
about them, which in its way lias never been ex- 
celled. It was the sternness of the Scotch cove- 
nanter, softened by a century's residence abroad amid 
persecution and trial, wedded there to the pathos and 
comic humor of the Irish, and then grown wild in the 
woods among our New England mountains. 

An uncle of Jeremiah Smith's, who had been an 
intemperate man, w^as found dead on the road, and 
an inquest w^as held, to decide upon the cause and 
manner of his death. All the relations were assem- 
bled, and, of course, in the most solemn state of feel- 
ing. But the coroner made some ridiculous blunders 
in reading ; the young could hardly keep their coun- 
tenances, and soon a sense of the ludicrous had so 
prevailed, that the w^hole assembly, even the sisters of 
the unfortunate man, were overcome by it. 

Among Judge Smith's early recollections was the 
funeral of his grandmother, which took place at his 
father's, when he w^as ten years old. It was the 
custom, borrowed, 1 suppose, from the Irish wakes, 
for the friends and neighbors to sit up all night wdth 
the dead, reading appropriate passages from the 
Scriptures, engaging, part of the time, in prayer, 
and telling stories of witches, and demons, and 
ghostly apparitions, and of the death-warnings which 
had been so often given. But the night was not all 
taken up with these things ; there was eating and 
drinking, and shouts often of laughter, before the 
morning. So wild a mingling of revelry and grief 
and superstitious terrors, connected as they were 
with the uninhabited state of the country, made an 



LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 9 

impression on the boy which followed him through 
life. 

Whatever his reason might have taught, I do not 
think that he, any more than Sir Walter Scott, ever 
freed himself entirely from a sort of vague feeling, 
in respect to supernatural influences. He used to 
refer to stories connected with a particular place, 
that was thought to be haunted, where horses were 
often stopped, without apparent cause, and oxen 
could not draw even a light load without great eflTort. 
One illusion, of a similar kind, occurred in his own 
experience, which I do not think he w^as ever able to 
throw entirely off' as only an illusion, however his 
judgment may have been convinced that it was so. 
As he was walking, w-hen quite young, through a 
large open field, he perceived a man approaching 
him from behind. He slackened his pace, and, 
looking back again, saw him, as he thought, still 
nearer. A minute after, when he supposed that he 
must have overtaken him, he turned round to speak 
to him, but there was no man there. It is hardly 
worth the while to say, that he was probably lost in 
his own thoughts, and, some impression being made 
on his eyes, he, without examining, took it to be a 
man, and, still intent on what was occupying his mind, 
carried on the illusion, till, when turning to speak, he 
came to himself, and the vision was gone. He was, 
of course, startled, and, in his childish imagination, 
coupling it with the stories he had heard of super- 
natural apparitions, it is not wonderful that he 
should have been strongly impressed by it. For if 
any circumstances could tend to fix such things in 



10 LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 

the mind, it was precisely those under which he was 
placed; — among a people who, without exception, 
most religiously believed in them ; amid a wilder- 
ness yet unexplored, except by the Indians and a 
few daring adventurers ; in the midst of what were 
then savage mountains ; left much of the time alone 
with the mysteries of nature, on which, to his mind, 
none of the light of modern science had yet been 
thrown. It is curious, and not without a philosophi- 
cal interest, to trace to its source, and then follow 
out through the subsequent history of a strong and 
cultivated mind, the effect of such impressions. 

Another thing, which had no small influence on 
the character of the boy, was the account given by 
his relatives of the state of things in Ireland, and par- 
ticularly of the wars in which they had been engaged. 
Many and terrible stories connected with tlie great 
massacre of Irish Protestants by their Popish neigh- 
bors had been handed down from father to son, losing 
nothing of their circumstantial horrors in the descent. 
He never forgot the impressive manner in which his 
grandfather, John Morison,^ recounted the dreadful 



^ John Morison, the son of Samuel Morison, had come from Ireland 
with his father and family in August, 1718. Tliey arrived late in the 
autumn at Casco Bay, where they were frozen in for the winter. It is 
said that on first landing upon that cold and cheerless coast, the wintry 
ocean behind them, and naked forests before, after a solemn act of 
prayer, they united in singing that most touching of all songs: — " By 
the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yea, we Avept, when we re- 
membered Zion ; " and with peculiar feelings, as they surveyed the waste 
around them, and remembered the pleasant liomes which they had left, 
might they add, " How shall we sing the L^nrd's song in a strange 
land ? " They left Casco Bay early in the spring, and began their set- 
tlement in Londonderry, April 11th, O. S. 1719. P'rom his wife, Mar- 
garet Wallace, who is supposed to have been of the race of Sir Wil- 



LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 11 

sufferings which he, then a boy, endured at the siege 
of Londonderry. He used to tell of watching for 
hours at a mouse-hole, in the hope of catching a 
mouse for food ; and he most eloquently described 
the intense anxiety they felt in the city, when, after 
nearly two-thirds of their number had died of hun- 
ger, they saw a frigate coming to their relief ; the 
sinking of the heart, when twice she had vainly tried 
to break the boom, which had been thrown across the 
river ; and then the violent change from despair to 
the frenzied bewilderment of joy, when, at the third 
attempt, she finally succeeded, and came up bringing 
food to the starving inhabitants. This same old man 
had been also at the battle of the Boyne, July 1, 1690, 
and saw the Count Schomberg when he fell. It is 
difficult for those born in cities to understand the 
intense interest excited among children in the coun- 
try, and especially at that period, by incidents like 
these, related by one who had been personally en- 
gaged in them more than three quarters of a century 
before. 

It was a rude state of society in which the boy's 
lot was cast, and though all his brothers, except one 
who died early, were afterwards distinguished for 
their intellectual powers, there was not, if we may 
trust one who knew them fourscore years ago, a 



liam Wallace, all the wit and smartness of the family were thought 
to have been inherited. It is related of her that when her husband was 
building his first habitation in Londonderry, she came to him and in a 
manner unusually affectionate, said, " A weel, aweel, dear Joan, an it 
maun be a log house, do make it a log heegher nor the lave," (higher 
than the rest.) On her death-bed, being asked what she would have, 
she replied, " Nothing but Christ." These were her last words. 



12 LIFE OF JUDGE SIVIITH. 

more uncouth, impudent, hungry-looking set of lads 
in the town of Peterborough. Jeremiah was indeed a 
diffident boy. The rest were great workers, and put 
to work almost as soon as they could walk. They 
were ready for all kinds of rough, practical jokes, and 
it was not an easy thing to provide food for seven 
such boys. To this day, in their native town, it is 
told as a cause of their being afterwards so sharp- 
witted, that on returning one night from some frolic, 
they in the dark seized upon and devoured what they 
thought a dry cod-fish ; but the next day their mo- 
ther, wishing to make a cheese, was in great distress 
because she could nowhere find her rennet. 

Under circumstances apparently so unfavorable, 
there was, in Jeremiah's mind from his earliest years, 
an intense desire for knowledge. " I well remem- 
ber," he said seventy years afterwards, " my longings 
at that time." He taught himself to write a good 
hand, partly by imitating his father's hand on pieces 
of birch-bark, with ink made from vegetables. When 
quite a boy, he was employed by people to write let- 
ters for them, not excepting love-letters, for which, 
he said, he had no other model than the Songs of 
Solomon. Peterborough, for some time after its set- 
tlement, had no enclosed pastures, and the little Jere- 
miah was employed in herding the cattle. He used 
to recur to the pleasure he enjoyed at such times in 
building stone houses. In these solitudes were pro- 
bably begun the habits of thought and meditation, 
which he always retained. No man could be more 
fond of society than he was in after life, but he loved 
also to be alone, and not a great while before his 



LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 13 

death, he said, "I conscientiously think I have en- 
joyed more in a lonely ride than in the company I 
loved the most." These circumstances, unpropitious 
as they might seem, were really favorable to his intel- 
lectual development. " Your education of events," 
he said to a friend, " has been the best part of your 
education. I think litde of what teachers can do." 
He drew this opinion undoubtedly from his own early 
experience. 

He would walk sometimes four or five miles to a 
place where he had heard there was a book, and 
reading it upon the road, he often devoured its con- 
tents before reaching home. When a little boy, he 
fell in with the Arabian Nights, which he read with 
delight. But the Bible was the book, which, above 
all others, interested and instructed him from his ear- 
liest days, and for which, not less on account of its 
literary merits than as the great repository of divine 
truth, his admiration never abated. He read it again 
and again, and committed large portions of it to me- 
mory. The Old Testament especially was a never- 
failing resource. His knowledge of the scriptures 
was indeed, as he thought, the cause of his being 
selected for a public education. His father was one 
of the deacons of the church, and his house a place 
of resort for the neighboring ministers. Sometimes, 
after the chapter had been read, at family prayers, 
the father would say, " This little boy can repeat that 
chapter." Whereupon Jerry was called up and 
would recite ; " For Zion's sake will I not hold my 
peace, and for Jerusalem's sake I will not rest, until 
the righteousness thereof go forth as brightness, and 



14 LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 

the salvation thereof as a lamp that burneth." After 
the boy had repeated this or whatever chapter it 
might be, the minister would pat him on the head 
and say, '^ This boy, 'squire, must be a minister. You 
must bring him up to college." Thus by degrees it 
came to be understood in the family that he was to 
go to college ; an advantage he thought he owed to 
his ready memory.^ 

He began to study Latin, when about twelve years 
old, with Rudolphus Greene, an Irishman employed 
by the town to keep school a quarter of the year in 
each of the four quarters of the town. While he 
was hearing a boy recite he usually held a stick in 
his hand, on which he cut a notch for every mistake, 
and, after the recitation was ended, another stick was 
employed to give a blow for every notch that had 
been cut. Jeremiah, who seldom had a notch against 
him, followed him round in his circuit, and is de- 
scribed as a bashful, awkward boy, who might be 
seen on his way to and from school, with an open 
book in his hand, and taking no notice of anything 
else. According to his own account, the instructions 
he received in Latin were wretched enough. When, 
longing to be enlightened on some dark passage in 
his lesson, he went to his teacher with his heart as 
full as if the whole world depended upon it, he often 
came away with tears of disappointment from the 

1 Judge Smith always disclaimed being a man of genius. His me- 
mory, which was indeed wonderfully quick, retentive and exact, he 
thought his most remarkable endowment next to his love of labor. If 
Quinctilian's remark, " quantum memoriae, tantum ingenii," were true 
(which it is not) he might certainly claim to be a genius of a very high 
order. 



LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 15 

blundering explanations that were given. At the 
meeting-house, where the school was kept a part of 
the time, the only seats and desks they had were 
made of rough boards placed on blocks of wood. If 
such was the meeting-house, what must have been 
the common school houses ? Bad as the school was, 
his attendance was often interrupted by the labors 
that were required upon the farm, and his studies 
must have been entirely suspended more than three 
quarters of the time after he commenced Latin till he 
entered college. He used to boast that when twelve 
years old he could reap as much in a day as a man. 

Through the town, however, he was singled out as 
one who was yet to be distinguished. Late in life he 
once said of a boy, " I don't like to see him bear 
punishment so well ; it seems so naturally fitted for 
him, and he for it^ It was by the converse of this 
reasoning, that old Mrs. Cunningham, who lived near 
his father's, formed her opinion of him. " I knew," 
she used to boast, after the prophecy had been fulfil- 
led, " that Jeremy Smith would make a great man, 
always after I foond him on my ploomb tree, stealing 
ploombs — he lukked sae shamed." A quick ingen- 
uousness of shame in a boy has been, from the time 
of Quinctilian, no mean sign of distinction ; but in 
the present case, an uncontrollable desire for know- 
ledge, and a readiness to pay, in laborious days and 
nights, whatever price might be required, afforded a 
surer presage of future greatness. 

He lived among men who made great account of 
theological discussions, and who, with rough, strong 
sense, and an extensive knowledge of scripture texts. 



16 LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. , 

delighted to enter on such disputes. While working 
with his elders, he was sometimes persuaded so far to 
overcome his diffidence, as to " let ofl' a speech." 
Once, after a regular forensic disputation between him 
and a colored man, who was owned as a slave by his 
uncle. Deacon Moore, the audience decided, that, 
though Baker made the most noise, Jerry showed 
the most sense and the soundest doctrine. 

Matters went on thus for several years, when he 
was sent for a short time to New Boston, to be under 
the instruction of an Irishman, named Donovan. 
After this he went to Hollis, where, under the Rev. 
Mr. Emerson, he began Greek and finished his pre- 
paration for college. This was a golden period, and 
he always remembered his kind and intelligent teacher 
with affectionate respect. He remembered only one 
thing against Mr. Emerson. Soon after roing to 
Hollis, the evening before Fast Day, one of his fellow- 
students said to him at tea-time, " You had better lay 
in a good stock, for you will get nothing to eat to- 
morrow." This information sounded so strangely, 
that he did not heed the warning, and, in fact, did 
not believe it. But in the morning there were no 
signs of breakfast. He went to meeting, came home 
very hungry, and perhaps a little angry ; but how 
must his irritation have been increased, when, 
through the half-open door of the best room, he 
saw his reverend teacher devouring drop-cakes and 
custards ! It was in Hollis that he first became ac- 
quainted with Noah Worcester, the apostle of peace, 
who was not more remarkable for the clearness of his 
mind and his simplicity and purity of character, than 



LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 17 

for the struggles through which he passed in early 
Hfe, under circumstances which seemed the most ad- 
verse to gaining an accomphshed education. 

It was about this time that Jeremiah first under- 
took the office of a teacher in a remote corner of his 
native town. The fashion was for the master to board 
round from house to house, with the parents of the 
children. Once, he used to say, while he was sitting 
at table, a hand from behind pounced upon his plate, 
and carried off all its contents. It was the hand of 
one of the hungry children, and the father of the 
family laughed heartily, as if what had been done 
showed that he might be a promising boy.' 

In 1777, Jeremiah Smith was entered at Harvard 
College, and about the same time enlisted for two 
months in the army. News had just come of Bur- 
goyne's invasion. One afternoon, a young man,^ ap- 
parently about sixteen, called on Capt. Stephen Park- 
er, of New Ipswich, and offered to enlist. The cap- 
tain inquired who he was, and if his father had given 



' One of the most distinguished merchants ia Boston, Samuel Apple- 
ton, Esq., was, a few years later, engaged as a teacher in the same 
neighborliood, though in an adjoining town. He, however, instead of 
going round with the scholars, was let out at auction, as paupers used to 
be, to board with the lowest bidder. He did not much like the place 
where he was to go, and a kind woman, a Mrs. Perry, who recently 
died at the age of ninety two, had compassion on him ; and, for the four- 
and-six-pence or five shillings a week, which her neighbor had thought 
a reasonable compensation, took him into her family. 

2 This account was kindly furnished me by the Hon. Salma Hale, of 
Keene, N. H., who had it from Capt. Parker's son, and who, on exam- 
ining public documents at Concord, found the name of Jeremiah Smith 
on the roll of Capt. P.'s company. Mr. Hale's name is a sufficient 
guaranty for the accuracy of the account, as far as he had anything to 
do with it. 

2* 



18 LIFK OF JUDGE SMITH. 

his consent. The lad ropliod that his name was Jor- 
omiali Smith : that his tathor hvod in IVtorborouixh, 
and that ho had oonio withont his knowlodgo. Capt. 
Parker knew his taiher, and. peisnading him to re- 
main at liis honso till morninir, ho went in tlio night 
to reterboroniih to consnlt the lather, wlio at length 
consented that his son shonld be enlisted. He ex- 
acted, however, iVom the captain a promise, that 
shonld his company be ordered into battle, he wonld 
not take Jeremiah with him, but despatch him on 
some duty that wonld be sate. Just before the battle 
of Bennington, Capt. Parker ordered the lad on some 
particular duty that appeared to be without danger, 
!nit in the midst of the light saw him by his side. 
" Why did you come here?" he said. "Oh, sir/' 
he re[)lied, •* I thought it my duty to follow my cap- 
tain." In the battle a nuisket-ball grazed liis throat, 
leaving a mark which remaineil for years, and his gun 
by another bullet was rendeied useless. He threw it 
away, ami, seizing another that lay near a ilying sol- 
dier, wlio had fallen by his side, he, in the language 
of his captain, '* fought with it like a young hero," 
till the battle endctl. In his own account o( the 
matter he claimed no credit for heroism, and said 
thai musket-ba^V^ made a sort of music which he had 
no disposition to hear a second time. He }>assed the 
night alter the battle in assisting to guard the Hes- 
sian prisoners, who were contined in the Bennington 
meeting-house. 

At Cambridge he was in the class with the Hon. 
John Davis, late judge of the United States' district 
court, who remembers liim as a good scholar and 



r.iFK OF jr;jjf;i: smith. 19 

pl^'as;;jrjt. ;j,H;-;of:i?ito. It, i'~; a litt]f; r<:ui',irku\)]('., \.\iu\. f>r;- 
HJdcH Sarr)iif;J Df^xiar, wlio, hh an afJvocatc, was infe- 
rior to no man of fiis day, lfj<;rr; sfiould fjavo bocn in 
the same clasH tljrf;o rnon, Jofin Davis, iilijalj i^•iine, 
and Jeremiah Smith, wlio wfsrd all placed upon tfie 
herjf:lj hy the elder Adams. After remainirj?.; at Har- 
vard Colle^^e two years, Mr. Smith w;js erjtered at 
(Queen's (now itutgersj College, in New Jersey. His 
reason for making tlie change was, that he got no- 
tliing at Cambridge, the college being then in a de- 
pressed condition, and the instnjction poor.' Ife 
probably gained nothing by the change, except to cut 
short his course, and lie was graduated in 1780, a year 
sooner than he could have been at Cambridge. Wfiile 
in New Jersey he was in some danger of ruining his 
eyes, by rising through tfie winter at four o'clock to 
study Greek. Referring, fifty years afterwards, to tlie 
sbite of tfie colleges at the time he took liis degree, 
he said, " I can remember when they were less at- 
tentive to the useful brandies of knovvle-fjge tlian 
now. Vou might formerly sonidimes see a graduate 
wIjo could not write a page of good Kngljsh, nor 
S[>(;ll well fiuck English as he did write." 

After leaving college he remained a year or two in 
Peterborougli. In the autumn of 17^1 he went with 
r:attle for tfie army to i^;ekskill, N. Y .. and tfiere, for 
tfie first time, met Alexander JIarnilton. At a public 
house he found a number of ofhcers, and, among 
tfiem, a young man. wfio was listened to witfi marked 



' Perhaps the rcVi'^nouh views at the New Jersey College had some 
influetw;c. 



20 LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 

attention by men evidently his superiors in rank, and 
greatly so in years. Hamilton was then but twenty- 
three or twenty-four, a circumstance which may well 
excite our wonder, when we consider how much he 
had already accomplished, and how great even then 
was his influence with Washington and the ablest 
men of the nation. The feelings which this inter- 
view awakened in Mr. Smith were never changed, 
and to the close of his life, after a pretty intimate ac- 
quaintance with most of the great men of America, 
who were on the stage with him, he always consid- 
ered Hamilton as a man of greater origi)ial powers, 
and of a more magnanimous nature, than any other 
whom he had known. 

I have endeavored to trace back as minutely as I 
could Mr. Smith's history to its early and humble 
beginnings. It is much easier to show, in general 
terms, the bow of promise which a great man's set- 
ting sun throws over the obscurity of his youth, and 
it may answer the purposes of eulogy, but not of a 
faithful biography. The little, and in themselves, 
unimportant circumstances, wliich exhibit pecuhar 
traits of mind, or which go to form tlie future char- 
acter, are the most instructive parts of a man's his- 
tory. 

It was during the two years Mr. Smith spent in 
Peterborough, that he received from his native town 
the fust public mark of the confidence and respect, 
which through all his political fortunes, continued 
unshaken, even with those whose opinions were ad- 
verse to his. One who had known him intimately 
from the time when he was taken out of the well to 



LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 



21 



the last summer of his life, and who had been early 
and intimately associated with him in the business of 
the town, speaks in the strongest terms of his impor- 
tant services to the town. They differed entirely 
in their religious views, but when some doubts were 
expressed as to Mr. Smith's Christian character, he 
said with a strong emphasis, '' I did think him the 
best-tempered man I ever knew. 1 can say, with a 
clear conscience, that I placed more confidence in 
Jerry Smith than in any [other] man that I ever 
knew in the world ; for there was no guile in him, 
but all fair integrity.'' And however they may at 
times have been estranged by party conflicts, those 
who knew him best from his childhood up, would, I 
believe, unanimously testify, as strongly as this man, 
to his good temper and the purity of his character. 
These high qualities were recognized in him from the 
beginning. The fact that his own family, who are 
usually the best and often the severest judges of 
character, together with all the neighbors, had set 
him apart, from his childhood, for the ministry, shows 
well enough the estimate which they put upon him. 
The love of knowledge, a high sense of justice and 
honor, and the desire to do well whatever he under- 
took, whether on a large or a small scale, and a more 
than willingness to endure any amount of labor, were 
then, as always, the distinguishing qualities of his 
mind. And not more true is it, that the noblest 
rivers come down from the loftiest mountains, than 
that the most useful lives are always, though we may 
not see the source, those which flow from the highest 
aspirations and desires in youth. 



»5« LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 

At a town meeting in Peterborough, January 21, 
1782, a committee of five was appointed to examine 
the plan of government which had been proposed for 
the state of New Hampshire, and at the same meet- 
ing he was chosen to attend the convention in Con- 
cord, as a member from Peterborough. I can find 
in the office of the secretary of state, at Concord, no 
records of this convention ; and do not suppose that 
the young legislator took any active part in this his 
first public employment. 

Having remained nearly two years undecided what 
profession to take, he at length resolved to study law ; 
and in August, 1782, he began ihe study with Shear- 
jashub Bourne, in Barnstable, Massachusetts, being 
at the same time a private teacher in the family of 
Brigadier Otis. His predecessor in both these places 
was his old classmate, John Davis, whose subsequent 
fortune, in the usefulness of his judicial services and 
the honored serenity of his old age, was not unlike his 
own.' After remaining a year at Barnstable, he spent 
the next year in Andover Academy, as assistant in- 
structor to '' that able and excellent scholar," (as he 

1 When Mr. Davis left the office of comptroller of the United States 
treasury, his place was offered to Mr. Smith. Mr. Davis was appointed 
United States district attorney, for Massachusetts, in 1796, Mr. Smith 
for New Hampshire, in 1797, and they were both made judges, one of 
the district, the other of the circuit court of the United States, I believe, 
in the same year. The Hon. Prentiss Mellen, late chief justice for the 
state of Maine, and the Hon. Jeremiah Smith, late chief justice of New 
Hampshire, both read law in Barnstable, and the Hon. Lemuel Shaw, 
now chief justice of the supreme court of Massachusetts, was born 
there. Judge George Thacher, Col. James Otis, also a judge, and Judge 
Davis, father of the solicitor-general, Daniel Davis, were Barnstable 
men, and Judge Marcus Morton was descended from Cape Cod ances- 
tors. 



LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 23 

called him,) Dr. Pierson. Here it was his privilege 
to number among his pupils, two presidents of Har- 
vard University, and the late honored principal of 
Phillips Exeter Academy ; ^ and he always boasted 
with an honest satisfaction, of the relation which they 
had once sustained to him. When, after Dr. Abbot 
had been fifty years connected with the Exeter 
Academy, his grateful pupils, with Mr. Webster at 
their head, held a sort of festival in honor of their 
teacher, Judge Smith claimed for himself a distinc- 
tion, " which," he said, " could belong to no other 
man living. You were his scholars ; I his teacher. 
It was little that I had to impart ; but that little was 
most cheerfully given. I well remember the promise 
he then gave ; and providence has been kind in plac- 
ing him just in that position where his life could be 
most usefully and most honorably spent." 

In 1784, he took the charge of a small school of 
young ladies in Salem, at the same time reading law 
under the direction of William Pynchon. This he 
looked back upon as one of the happiest portions of 
his life. At Salem, he was brought into a larger cir- 
cle of refined and educated people than he had be- 
fore met ; and he is still remembered, by some who 
knew him there, as an amiable, agreeable, intelligent 
young man, and a great favorite in society. He en- 
tered earnestly into plans for the improvement of his 
pupils, and, much as he admired and always professed 
to admire personal beauty, he endeavored earnestly 

1 John Thornton Kirkland, Josiah Q,uincy and Benjamin Abbot. " I 
sometimes," he said, " feel almost giddy when I think of the great men 
who have been under my charge." 



24 LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 

to impress them with a sense of the superior value of 
that higher and more lasting beauty, which belongs to 
the mind and character. He was greatly pleased 
with the turn which a young lady gave to some 
complimentary remarks that he was making to her, 
and wished that all ladies would make as good a 
use of flattery. " 1 know," she replied, " that I do 
not possess those qualities ; but since you ascribe 
them to me, I take it for granted that you wish me 
to have them, and will therefore try to make your 
words true." Of that period he might have said, as 
Lord Eldon said of the corresponding period in his 
life : " Oh, those were happy times, we were always 
in love then." 

He became particularly interested, while at Salem, 
in a young lady of great beauty and loveliness, with 
whom he corresponded for several years. The let- 
ters still remain, and though written after the fashion 
of the day, bear marks of a deep and tender attach- 
ment on both sides. But his circumstances were not 
such as to warrant an engagement or to commend 
him to her friends, and she was reserved for a more 
splendid fortune but an early grave. 

Mr. Smith was remarkably communicative, and 
used always to say that he had no secrets of his own ; 
but an incident, which occurred while he was in Sa- 
lem, taught him to be careful about telling other peo- 
ple's secrets, even to his nearest friend. He was to 
go on important business down into Maine to secure 
a debt. The evening before he set out he happened 
to mention it to an intimate friend and fellow stu- 
dent. The next morning he found that the horse, 



LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 25 

which he had counted upon having, was gone, and 
immediately suspected that he was anticipated by his 
friend, who, being left in charge of his father's busi- 
ness, had sent off a messenger at midnight to secure 
a debt which was due to him. Mr. Smith took the 
best horse he could get, and found, by inquiries upon 
the road, that he was gaining on his competitor. 
Before evening his horse gave out ; but another was 
procured. It was a chilly night as he rode through 
the Wells woods in his nankin small clothes and 
thread stockings, but he pressed on, and at last stop- 
ped at a public house where the other messenger was 
asleep. He procured some refreshments for himself 
and horse, and, wishing his competitor a sound night's 
sleep, rode on and accomplished his object. The 
first man he met on his return was his friend, who 
immediately called out to him ; " Well, Smith, 1 
know all about it. You 've beat, and I am glad of 
it ; for you ought to beat." His friend was the Hon. 
Benjamin Pickman, a man who carried with him 
through life the nicest sense of honor, and between 
whom and himself this httle matter did not cause a 
moment of estrangement or ill-feeling. As long as 
they lived they cherished towards each other senti- 
ments of aflfectionate respect, and when, after more 
than forty years, heavy domestic calamities had fallen 
upon them both, they met, as from two opposite poles 
in temperament, but with warm mutual sympathy and 
kindness. 



CHAPTER II. 

1786 — 1790. 

AT THE BAR INFLUENCE IN THE TOWN OF PETERBO- 
ROUGH IN THE NEW HAMPSHIRE LEGISLATURE. 

Mr. Smith was admitted to the bar by the court 
of coinnion pleas holden at Amherst, IIillsboroui::h 
county, N. IL, in the spring of 178(>, and under cir- 
cumstances that cost him a good deal of anxiety. 
His course of study, as we have seen, had been nuich 
interrupted by other occupations, and, though he pro- 
duced ample evidence of his legal qualitications, it 
was not easy to show precisely iiow much time he 
had spent in acquiring them. There was a strong- 
feeling among the lawyers against his admission. 
The court was to adjourn on Saturday, and he could 
not succeed in getting a meeting of the bar called till 
Friday morning, when, after considering his applica- 
tion, they rejected it, on the ground of its not being 
accompanied by the proper certiticates. He immedi- 
ately set out on horseback for Salem, and, having rode 
all night, arrived at Amherst the next morning with 
the required recommendation from Mr. Pynchon, 



LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 27 

which he oflbrecl to the president of the bar,' with a 
request that another meeting might be called. This 
was refused on the ground of want of time ; when 
Mr. Smith rose and appealed to the court, who were 
so convinced of tlie envious injustice with which he 
liad been treated, that, waiving the usual forms, they 
at once unanimously admitted him. The bar were 
exceedingly angry, and spent the remainder of the 
forenoon in the most taunting remarks and insinua- 
tions. One moved that Jo Blanchard should be ad- 
mitted to the bar ; another proposed Judge She])herd, 
a man who turned tory during the war and joined 
the I5ritish ; and other members of the bar, in insult- 
ing tones, proposed others who were either notoriously 
ignorant or notoriously wicked. The court paid no 
attention to them, and they could only comfort them- 
selves by asserting, that it was of no consequence, as 
he certainly would not be admitted to the superior 
court. But the young man whom they so despised 
for his want of legal knowledge, almost immediately 
took his place at the head of the bar. At the next 
session he appeared with a full docket, and was em- 



1 Joshua Athcrton. Tlie TTon. Cliarlos H. Allicrton, I'ormoily rep- 
resentative in congress, and a distinguished nieinhcr of the New 
Hampshire bar, was his son. Josliua Atherton was, in 1788, a memlier 
of the convention for ratifying the constitution of the United Stales; 
and the only relic, it is said, that has been preserved of the debates in 
the convention, is a speech of his against the constitution, because it 
sanctioned slavery and the slave trade. IJe was the grandfather of the 
Hon. Charles G. Atherton, wlio, as a representative in congress, Avas 
the first to propose a resolution, by wliich all jjctilions relating to shivery 
should be rejected without a hearing, and who, in the United States 
senate, has given his vole for the annexation of Texas ; and, of course, 
for the indefinite perpetuity and extension of slavery. 



LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 



ployed to argue their causes by some of the very men 
who had most violently opposed his admission.^ 

What his feelings were, may be seen in the follow- 
ing extracts from a letter written to William Plummer, 
in October, 1787. " I hate a monopolizing spirit ; and 
though the profession seems somewhat crowded at 
present, the harvest small, and the laborers very many, 
yet I cannot help thinking that there is room for as 
many good characters as may be disposed to enter 
into the profession." Then, after mentioning his ap- 
plication to the bar, he says — "I had the mortifica- 
tion to hear for answer, that their wisdoms were not 
fully satisfied, and that they had continued it for 
further consideration. This new mortification I had 
to bear, as if the humiliating circumstance of barely 
asking for admission into such a brotherhood were not 
enough in all conscience. 'T is devilish provoking to 
be denied admittance into had company. I knew I 
was not so well qualified as I ought, and would have 
been glad, to have been ; but my age and circumstan- 
ces (especially when I adverted to the character and 
pretensions of those already admitted,) determined 
me to waive all ceremony, and apply directly to the 
court, which I did at the adjournment, and was ad- 
mitted by their unanimous voice. This bold stroke 
gave great umbrage, you have undoubtedly heard. I 
do'nt know that I was right ; I was governed by the 



1 This account I took down from the lips of the venerable Timothy 
Farrar, the judge who then presided in the court of common pleas, and 
who, at the age of ninety-six, retained a distinct remembrance of all the 
particulars of the transaction. There is, it will be seen, a slight differ- 
ence between this statement and that which follows. 



LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 29 

impulse of the moment, and he whose feelings har- 
monize with mine will not condemn me." 

Mr. Smith was now in a field which gave full em- 
ployment to his powers. The condition of the coun- 
try at that time, the crude and unsettled state of so- 
ciety, and the not less crude and unsettled state of 
the law, tended greatly to multiply the causes of liti- 
gation. As an attorney, he, from the beginning, ex- 
ercised his influence in discouraging the foolish, 
angry, and wasteful suits which then formed so large 
a part of the business of the profession. Sometimes 
with pleasantry, sometimes with earnest remonstrance 
and serious arguments, he turned away those who 
were intent on ruining themselves ; and it was thought 
by many of the most considerate men, that the town 
of Peterborough might well aflbrd to pay him five or 
six hundred dollars a year, for what he saved to the 
inhabitants by preventing lawsuits. As an instance, 
a man came to him greatly irritated against his bro- 
ther for his unjust and oppressive conduct. " And 
can you prove all this ? " was the question, after the 
injured man had worked up his feelings by recount- 
ing his wrongs. " Certainly, I can." " Do you like 
David's Psalms ? " " Why, yes," said the man, some- 
what amazed. "So do I," said the lawyer; "I 
think there is a great deal of good reading in them. 
One in particular I have read a great many times, and 
think it excellent. I can't remember exactly which 
it is ; but it is somewhere near the hundred and thir- 
tieth, and you may easily find it when you go home. 
It begins with these words, ' Behold, how good and 
3# 



30 LIFE OF JrDOF s^hth. 

liow pleasant it Is lor lirothreu to dwell touether in 
unity I ' " 

Tlie practiec ot" that day in New ITanipshire was 
not of the kind best fitted to make a profound law- 
yer. The judges were not always men who belonged 
to the profession ; and even the chief justice of the 
superior court, at a much later day, in his charges to 
the jury, was accustomed to say, -* Gentlemen, the 
merits o( the case are the law of the case, and of 
both you are to judge." Of course, the object of the 
counsel was rather to get the good-will oi' the jury, 
than to argue cases on the broad piinci[>les of law ; 
and legal decisions were made to depend less on law 
than on feeling, that most uncertain and often un- 
just of guides. It is usually at such times, when 
it is the fashion to establish equity in the {^lace of 
law, that great legal principles are made subser- 
vient to vague ideas of justice, and the inferior arts 
and quibbles of the profession are most in the ascend- 
ant. At all events, -this was the state of things in 
New Hampshire, when Mr. Smith came to the bar; 
and during the four-and-thirty years that followed, 
comprehending the whole of his active life, the one 
public object, to which, above all others, he devoted 
his time, his strength, the earlier essays and the riper 
fruits of his vigorous and disciplined mind, was to 
bring about a better administration of justice. As a 
practitioner, he strove to introduce a better practice ; 
and in this he was powerfully aided by a few, who 
soon after followed h'uu into the profession, bringing 
with them an amount o( jMofessional zeal and indus- 



LIFE OF JUDGE SMITIf. 31 

try, an acutcncss of discrimination, and a massive in- 
tellectual power, through which some of them liave 
risen to a rank not inferior to that of any lawyers in 
the United States. 

It is, however, from the nature of the case, impos- 
sible to point out the particular improvements that 
were introduced, or where effects are known, to refer 
them always to their true cause. The great, and 
usually the most important influence of a leading 
practitioner at the bar, and to an almost equal extent, 
of a judge upon the bench, is the silent influence of 
mind and character. The artifices of the profession, 
the paltry shifts of legal cunning, and the subterfuges 
of ignorance insensibly lose their respectability, and 
are shamed out of countenance by the piercing look 
of one who sees through them at a glance, and who, 
it is known, will expose them to laughter and con- 
tempt. It is equally difficult to measure the influence 
of such an example upon the young in awakening 
their ambition and directing their studies. Yet, 
though we cannot trace it step by step, it is easy to 
see how in these two ways alone, an entire revolution 
may be brought about by one or two powerful minds 
in the whole administration of justice throughout a 
state. Such a change undoubtedly did take place 
in the courts of New Ilanipshire, and I believe that 
all intelligent men, who have looked into the subject, 
will unite in attributing it to Mr. Smith, more than 
to any other single man. 

The whole country, after the war, and especially 
the legal profession, was infested by a set of idle and 



3SJ LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 

worthless follows, who lived by practice? which are 
now hardly known in New England, vitiating the 
characters, and preying npon the time of the young. 
Mr. Smith was at this early period, thrown much 
into their society, but he had no part nor fellowship 
with them. He did not set himself up as an exam- 
ple, nor treat them with harshness, but never fre- 
quenting their places of meeting, he contrived, by 
various expedients, to shake them olf, when, in their 
visits to him, they were consuming the time which 
he wished to employ in his studies. 

All professional men, in country towns, are subject 
more or less to one annoyance — the disposition of 
clients to prolong their visits, after their business is 
finished. This atlliction fell particularly heavy on 
Mr. Smith, owing to his easy and friendly manners, 
and the charms which his conversation had for per- 
sons of all classes. The good people of Peterborough 
and the neigliboring towns, while sitting in his office 
before a cheerful fire, and listening to his conversa- 
tion, full of wit and instruction, often lost all proper 
regard both for his time and their own. He was, 
therefore, driven to contrivances to shorten their long 
visits. One was, when he saw a regular sitter ride 
up, to order his Iiorse to be saddled, or to take the 
bridle and go himself towards the pasture. This 
would sometimes, he used to say, shorten the visit ; 
but sometimes his friend would be so exceedingly 
kind as to assist him in getting his horse, and then 
would propose to ride with him. 

Through life Mr. Smith was one of the most in- 



LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 33 

dustrious of men, and always took great satisfaction 
in thinking that, whatever might have been his suc- 
cess, he had spared no time or labor, but had done 
all that he could. He was, to use an old Enghsh 
word, a most painful practitioner, and never willing 
to bring a cause into court without thorough prepar- 
ation. He had not the unmanly fears through which 
great talents sometimes wear themselves out in those 
minute and fruitless investigations, which embarrass 
and perplex the mind rather than give it strength. 
No man could act with greater boldness, but his bold- 
ness arose from the consciousness of having gained 
the mastery of his subject, and was not the reckless 
and ruinous self-confidence, through which so many 
promising young men foolishly consider themselves 
exempted from the necessity of exertion, and there- 
fore dwindle into insignificance. 

The amount of Mr. Smith's practice at the bar 
during the ten years that he kept his office in Peterbo- 
rough, though probably equal to that of any other law- 
yer then in the county, must have been small compared 
with what it was some years afterwards. He very 
soon engaged in public life. In 1786 he was chosen 
town clerk. In 1787 he was appointed surveyor of 
highways, for the district in which he Hved. It had 
previously been the custom to allow the same price to 
all the men that worked upon the roads, and the con- 
sequence was that in some families the highway taxes 
were worked out mostly by the old. But Mr. Smith 
determined to allow them but half price, and fixed on 
that rate for his father and Major Wilson, another 
aged man of great consequence in the town. This 



LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 



produced a Iiii^li opinion of his independence and 
justice, and as he himself worked upon the roads with 
his neighbors, lie acquired such a reputation that on 
the following spring he was chosen representative to 
the general court. 

In another capacity he j)erfornied a much more im- 
portant service for his native i)lace. There were two 
or three of his townsmen, wdio, without having studied 
the profession, entertained a very high opinion of 
their legal attainments, and had contrived to impress 
it on others. As is usual with such persons, they 
had a great disposition to put their knowledge in 
practice. Like some young surgeons, who begin by 
trying the lancet upon their own muscles, they began 
by law suits of their own, and then, having induced 
the town to engage in a foolish and unjust suit, they 
were, in 17Sr2, appointed a committee to carry it on, 
and soon after were appointed a standing committee, 
with full powers to carry on all suits for and against 
the town. As a consequence, the town was engaged 
in long and vexatious suits, without either law or 
justice on their side. The object of the committee 
seems to have been to resist just claims, and then 
worry out their adversaries by delays, which usually 
involved the town in costs greatly beyond the original 
demand against it. The more respectable of the 
inhabitants were violently opposed to such a course 
on the ground both of principle and expediency ; but 
such was the general confidence in the legal ability 
of their agents, that year after year they were contin- 
ued in office. At length, in April, 1787, Jeremiah 
Smith was chosen in their place. There was, how- 



LlFK OP JUDGE SMITH. 35 

ever, a violent opposition ; the whole town was in 
comnnotion, and on the 2:2(1 of June, it was voted to 
dismiss him to make room for tlie old committee. 
But at a town meeting on tlie 9tii of July, this vote 
was reversed, and Mr. Smith was again appointed 
agent. Thus, in the course of the year, seven town 
meetings were hblden on this subject with various 
success, till at last the old committee were perma- 
nently displaced ; and through the judicious manage- 
ment of the new agent, the town was freed from its 
costly and harassing experiments in the law. 

JJuring the three or four years that followed, all the 
public business of the town came, in a* great degree, 
under his supervision, and was placed on a new and 
greatly improved basis. For several years he was 
one of the selectmen, and according to the testimony 
of one who served with him, " performed all the la- 
bors of the office himself, till he had taught them a 
better way," when he declined being any longer a 
candidate. He made great efforts for the improve- 
ment of the public schools, and through his influence 
five new school-houses were built in 1791. He suc- 
ceeded, too, in procuring for the town better teach- 
ers than they had before had, and an impulse was 
given to the cause of education, which has been felt 
in the character of the inhabitants ever since. A 
small social library was got up ; good books thus 
brought within the reach of the young, were read 
with eagerness and care ; important subjects in theo- 
logy, metaphysics and politics, were made the com- 
mon topics of conversation among young men, and 
were discussed with correctness of language, with 



36 LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 

energy and ability. In this way, a race of strong- 
minded, well-informed and thinking men grew up. 
There was a beecli tree near the nieeting-liouse, 
where they used to assemble before and after the ser- 
vice on Sunday. I use here the strong language ol 
one,' who remembers well the discussions he de- 
scribed, and who, in his own striking eloquence, 
unites many of the finest qualities of the Peterborough 
character. ^' Religion, politics, literature, agriculture 
and various other important subjects were there dis- 
cussed. Well, distinctly well do I remember, those 
debates. No absurd proposition or ridiculous idea 
escaped exposure for a single moment. A debater then 
had to draw himself up close, be nice in his logic and 
correct in his language, to command respectful atten- 
tion. Strong thought and brilliant conceptions broke 
forth in clear and select language. They were read- 
ing men, thinking men, forcible-talking men, and sen- 
sible men. Bright intellectual sparks were constantly 
emanating from those great native minds ; and fall- 
ing upon younger minds, kindled up their slumbering 
energies to subsequent noble exertion. The imme- 
diate efiect of those discussions could be easily traced 
in the beaming eye and the agitated muscles of the 
excited listeners. It was obvious to an acute observer, 
that there was a powerful etibrt going on, in many a 
young mind among the hearers, to seize, retain and 
examine some of the grand ideas that had been 
started by the talkers. This rousing of the young 



^ General James Wilson, in his speech at the Peterborough Centen- 
nial, October 24, 1839. 



LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 37 

vriind to manly exertion, and aiding it in arriving at a 
consciousness of its own powers, was of great advan- 
tage where the seeds of true genius had been planted 
by the hand of nature." 

We must allow something for the enthusiasm of 
one speaking on such an occasion, of the citizens of 
his native town ; but there were among those who 
grew up with Jeremiah Smith, and who came upon 
the stage while he resided in Peterborough, men who 
would have been distinguished in any place for their 
intellectual endowments. His brother John," was 
considered, by those who knew them both, as his su- 
perior in native strength. James Wilson was a man 
of strong sense and of a quick, impassioned elo- 



1 He was for many years, an able and influential member of the New 
Hampshire legislature. JNotwilhslanding his plainness of speech and 
the pungency of his wit, he was a man greatly honored and beloved, 
and his sudden and violent death, in August, 1821, caused a deep sensa- 
tion of grief through the whole community in which he hved. The pre- 
sent governor of New Hampshire, John H. Steele, who always differed 
from him in politics, has, with a warmth of feeling alike creditable to 
both, thus described him. " If Peterborough can boast of a better, more 
useful, brighter, purer-hearted son than was John Smith, I know him 
not. That she can point to many, whose exterior, both in dress and 
address, comes much nearer to what is termed a finished gentleman, no 
one will doubt. But where now is the man, who never lets a human 
being pass him unheeded ; whose ever-active mind and ready talent can 
draw forth alike the budding powers of childhood, or those of ripened 
age ; who is ever ready to aid, counsel or direct, witii wisdom, purse or 
hand, his fellow man ? Such a man was John Smith. With an ad- 
dress, which to a stranger appeared rough and rugged as the mountains 
which surround his native town, he possessed a heart as tender and pure 
as ever animated the breast of man. To him I owe more than I can 
express. He was not only a friend but a father. He taught me to be- 
lieve that there is nothing impossible; nothing that a willing mind and 
active hand cannot accomplish. I yet seem to hear his voice reproving 
me for saying, I cannot do it ! ' Why don't you trj',' he would say, 
' and not stand there looking as if you were in a trance ? ' " 
4 



38 LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 

(^uence. And there were others fully able to main- 
tain their side of the argument against them. 

During three years, 1788, 1789, and 1790, Mr. 
Smith represented the town in the general comt, 
and took there the same high place which he had al- 
ready taken at the bar. In 1789 and 1790 he was 
chairman of the committee appointed " to select, re- 
vise, and arrange all the laws and public resolves then 
in force, whether passed before or since the Revolu- 
tion." The labor devolved almost entirely on him, 
and took up all the time he could spare for two or 
three years. The work he accomplished is not easily 
estimated, but must have been of great and important 
service to the state. As an evidence of the stand he 
took in the legislature, it may be mentioned that the 
house, having voted (June 17, 1790) to impeach the 
Hon. Wodbury Langdon, one of the justices of the 
superior court, appointed Mr. Smith to conduct the 
impeachment, although he had voted against it. He 
was obliged to go to Worcester, Mass., to get forms by 
which he might draw up the articles of impeachment. 
His speech, which is preserved, written out in full, 
shows some of the characteristics of his mind, but 
lacks the heartiness with which a strong man utters 
himself, when he has full confidence in his cause. 

The principal charge brought against Judge Lang- 
don was, neglect of the duties of his office, in conse- 
quence of too great devotion to his private business. 
The following extracts are given, as showing what 
notions Mr. Smith then had of the duties of a judge. 
" To say nothing of the great qualities in a judge, 
knowledge in discerning the true merits of a cause. 



LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 39 

rectitude of heart, and strict impartiality in deciding 
upon it, which are indispensable, I apprehend that a 
steady and close attention to the business, both in 
term-lime and in the vacation, is equally necessary. 
Nature hath not been so lavish to any of her sons, as 
to give them an intuitive knowledge of any science 
without the labor of close thought and reflection. A 
judge must be possessed of great patience in hearing, 
and coolness in deliberating. He must especially dis- 
engage himself from all other business and employ- 
ment, and devote himself to the duties of the office. 
There is a dictum in one of the books of reports, 
which, I suppose, will pass for very good law in this 
court — ^ Ye cannot serve God and Mammon ' — 
you cannot be a judge and a merchant. 'T is easy 
to guess, in this contest, which will get the mastery. 
I fear, if we look into human nature, we shall find it 
written in page the first, in very legible characters, 
that interest will prevail, and that our judge will be 
more solicitous about fitting out his brig, than about 
settling a knotty point of law. He will be too apt to 
be disposing of a cargo, when he should be dispensing 
justice. 

" This attention to private business has been the 
bane of public justice. To this it has been owing 
that our courts of law, when they have pretended to 
sit to dispense justice, have rather dispersed than dis- 
pensed it. To the same cause it has been owing, that 
difficult cases of law have been determined without 
any deliberation, and the very same question has re- 
ceived different determinations. In short, instead of 
justice running in a clear, a steady and broad chan- 



40 LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 

nel, it has all the impetuosity of a torrent, and, like a 
torrent, bears down all before it. The consequence 
has been, that nobody rests satisfied with our legal 
determinations. It is in consequence of this, too, 
that the legislature, at every session, are troubled with 
so many applications to restore persons, suffering by 
these hasty determinations, to law. 

" One end of legal decision of a cause is, to sat- 
isfy the parties ; but the parties never will be satis- 
fied, unless their cause has been coolly, deliberately, 
and fully heard. This a judge never will do, if he is 
entangled with private affairs. The parties think, 
and have been heard to say, that when the honorable 
judge's brig goes to sea, he wdll be more at leisure. 
If the brig sails or arrives in term-time, the inhabit- 
ants of Cheshire and Grafton need not expect to see 
the honorable judge. These are facts I do not mean 
to exaggerate. 

" With respect to individuals, who have causes 
pending in court, it is easy to conceive that they 
must be great sufferers by this delay of justice ; 
though it is not easy to conceive of the full extent 
of tlieir sufferings. That a poor unhappy citizen, 
who is so unfortunate as to be confined on suspicion 
of having committed some offence against the pub- 
he, should suffer the horrors of imprisonment six 
months or a year longer, because the court should 
refuse to sit to try him, and give him an opportunity 
of showing forth his innocence, is something ; that 
an honest citizen should lose his debt, perhaps his 
all, because the court neglect to do their duty, is 
something ; that juries, witnesses and parties should 



LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 41 

be summoned to attend, and no court to trans- 
act business should assemble, is no small griev- 
ance." 

Judge Langdon was acquitted, and soon after re- 
signed his office. 

A little incident occurred about this time which, 
Mr. Smith said, made a lasting impression on his 
mind, and which, in the latter part of his life, he 
used to tell for the benefit of young men disposed 
to indulge their wit, without regard to the feelings of 
others. While in the legislature, he one day, by 
some humorous remarks, raised quite a laugh in the 
house at the expense of a venerable man, who 
was universally respected for his delicacy of feeHng, 
good sense, and moral worth. As he was coming 
out, the Hon. John Pickering, afterwards chief jus- 
tice of the state, comphmented him on the wit and 
talent he had shown ; " but," he added with emo- 
tion, " nothing on earth would tempt me so to 
wound the feelings of a worthy old man like him." 

Mr. Smith used to cause a good deal of amuse- 
ment, by the manner in which he gave an account 
of his first, and I believe last, military appointment. 
He and Major Webster, the father of Daniel and 
Ezekiel Webster, had been delegated by the house, 
in 1790, to go to Kingston and inform Dr. Josiah 
Bartlett of his election as governor. They arrived 
there Saturday evening, went to meeting with the 
governor on Sunday, and, before setting out with 
him on Monday, found that he had paid their bills at 
the tavern. Their approach to the capitol was an- 
nounced by the firing of guns, which so frightened 

4* 



42 LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 

their horses that ISIr. Smith was thrown flat upon 
his back. It so happened that the governor's hat 
and wig fell to the ground at the same instant, and 
Mr. Smith, with admirable presence of mind, picked 
them up and gave them back to him. It was sup- 
posed that he had leaped from his horse for no other 
purpoj^e, and on account of the agility he had dis- 
played in horsemanship, lie was appointed aid to his 
Excellency, with the rank of colonel. 

In 1791 -:2 Mr. Smith was a member of the con- 
vention, chosen to revise the constitution of New 
Hampshire. He took, in the deliberations of that 
body, an active and important part. The records, 
though he was not the clerk, are mostly in his hand- 
writing ; and he must have been of great service in 
drawing up the diflerent articles. I lind his vote 
recorded in favor of expunging that clause in the 
constitution, by which " no person can be capable 
of being elected a senator, (or representative,) who is 
not of the protestant religion ; " an article which is 
still in the constitution. 

An anecdote relating to a period a little earlier than 
this, and which has nothing to do with legislation, 
may here be told, as characteristic of Peterborough 
manners, and as showing how far Mr. Smith would 
sometimes carry a joke. James Wilson, while a 
member of college, was suspended for some youthful 
indiscretions. Mr. Smith intimated to Major Wil- 
son, the father, who, though a sensible man, knew 
nothing of college rules, that it was probably on ac- 
count of his extraordinary scholarship that his son 
had been allowed to come home before his time. 



LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. . 43 

This testimony was in danger of being called in 
question, by the untimely arrival of a letter from 
President Willard. Mr. Smith, and very likely most 
of the wits of the town, (for Major Wilson kept a 
public house that was greatly frequented,) happened 
to be there when it came, and the Major's spectacles 
not being at hand, he promptly offered to read it. 
He went on with perfect ease reading it, as if it had 
been a family letter from the Major's brother-in-law, 

Mr. H , giving such domestic intelligence, and 

such an account of the crops, as might be expected 
from such a quarter. " But what," said the Major, 
" what is that name I see in the corner ? That is 

not H ; it looks like Willard." '' Oh!" said 

the young lawyer, ^' he merely says, I send this by 
one Jo Willardy This was probably received with 
shouts of laughter by the company present, and Ma- 
jor Wilson's happy delusion was doubtless of short 
continuance. 

In connexion with James Wilson, who was him- 
self a wit, another anecdote, which Judge Smith 
delighted to tell in Wilson's presence, may be given 
here. After Smith had been chosen a member of 
congress, he was travelling with his friend, Wilson, 
towards Groton. In the course of the day Wilson 
rode on before his companion, and coming up with a 
stranger, a sort of horse-jockey, he, for the sake of 
sport, passed himself off as Mr. Smith, the member 
of congress. On reaching Groton, Wilson began to 
boast of what he had done, and how he had been 
taken for the great man. " No," said Smith, " but 
when you made the attempt the man exclaimed, 



44 LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 

' what, you Jerry Smith ! Why he is a respectable 
man.' " 

Doubtless other anecdotes might be given, iii 
wiiich the advantage was on the other side. Mr. 
Wilson w^as graduated at Harvard College in 1789, 
and began to practise law in Peterborough about the 
year 1792, which, of course, often brougiit him pro- 
fessionally into collision with Mr. Smith, and which, 
as Mr. Smith was absent a considerable part of the 
year at Philadelphia, must sometimes have given him 
greatly the advantage. He took a leading part in 
the politics of the state, was, at diflerent times, a 
member of the state legislature and a representative 
in congress. He was distinguished at the bar, but 
too much devoted to his private business to do 
full justice to his professional abilities. He died in 
Keene, his place of residence for many years, after 
having accumulated, perhaps, the largest estate ever 
acquired by any lawyer in New Hampshire. 



CHAPTER III. 

1791 — 1795. 

IN CONGRESS FIRST IMPRESSIONS INVALID PEN- 
SIONERS — Hamilton's assumption of state debts 

INDIAN war ORIGIN OF TWO PARTIES MAD- 

ISOn's tariff FRENCH, POLITICS DEMOCRATIC 

CLUBS, ETC. 

In December, 1790, Mr. Smith was chosen a mem- 
ber of the second congress, which began its session 
the 24th of October, 1791. On his way to Philadel- 
phia, he stopped at Roxbury, Massachusetts, to be 
inoculated for the small-pox. While undergoing this 
preparatory discipline for congress, he was, accord- 
ing to one who was there with him, overflowing with 
spirits, and, by his vivacity and wit, contributed 
greatly to the life and entertainment of the company. 
His first impressions both of the city of Philadel- 
phia, and of the body to which he belonged, were 
not of the most favorable kind, as may be seen by 
the following extracts from letters to his brother : 
October 30. " I arrived in this city a week ago, and 
last evening got into lodgings which I do not like. It 



46 LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 

will be impossible for you to have any idea of the diffi- 
culty of getting decent lodgings. The accounts you 
have always had of tiiis great and beautiful city will 
blind the eyes of your understanding as they did 
mine. I have had so little experience of congres- 
sional life, that I can say but little on that head. I 
find, however, that this august assembly is composed 
of men subject to like passions as we. These south- 
ern gentry do not please me. There are some ex- 
cej)tions, however, and I intend to cultivate the good 
opinion of all." 

November 22. " I do not like Philadelphia ; nor 
am I very fond of congressional life. I find myself 
of very little consequence ; I am a raw hand, unac- 
quainted with men and the modes of conducting bu- 
siness. The only consolations I have, are that I 
shall learn, and that I find a few others in my own 
situation. They (the Philadelphians,) are from the 
highest to the lowest, — from the parson in his black 
gown to the fille de jole, or girl of pleasure, — a set 
of beggars. You can't turn round without paying a 
dollar." 

January 12, 1792. '' I am glad you have had 
resolution enough to avoid the loo-table. I am sure 
my friend Page, Slc, spend too much time in this 
way. I do not think that gambling has any ten- 
dency to better the morals, add to the property, or 
increase the pleasure and happiness of its votaries. 
From what I have said you will be led to believe that 
I do not play. In this conclusion you will be justi- 
fied by the fact. It is not an uncommon thing in this 
city to hear of a gentleman or lady, losing three or 



LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 47 

four hundred dollars at a sitting ; nor is it uncom- 
mon to hear that the people who gamble so high 
are bankrupts, and living on the property of other 
people. 

'' I spend the greatest part of my time in my 
chamber with my books, a good collection of which 
I have purchased. My acquaintance continues to be 
small, but agreeable enough." 

In a letter to A. Moore, Esq., February, 1792, 
after speaking of a case in which the personal influ- 
ence of an accomplished woman had effected what 
argument could not, he adds ; '' Logicians think 
that if they can point their artillery at the under- 
standing, and discharge a good volley of heavy shot 
at the part called the mind, it is a mighty pretty 
thing. This is a stupid notion of theirs. Tlie mind 
is a stubborn thing ; it has a surprising faculty at 
dodging these shot. But there are certain other 
things, which though they have very little to do with 
reasoning, are strangely convincing." 

From a letter to D. Warren, Esq., March 2, 1792. 
" Do you wish to know in what light I am consi- 
dered here ? Just as Allen is in your house — an 
illiberal, ignorant fellow, who has never seen the 
world, who is startled at the mention of millions, 
who says nothing, except now and then to snarl a 
little at an extravagant grant of money. I am of 
too little consequence to be courted by the ministry. 
We have no opposition, else I beheve I should en- 
list. Don't be easily persuaded, my good friend, 
that I am altogether inactive and stupid. I am learn- 
ing, and may possibly some time or other, convince 



48 LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 

the world that the fellow has more sense than he ap- 
pears to have." 

His brother Robert, being left a widower, had an 
inclination to study divinity, and wrote to Jeremiah 
for advice, who replied, March 29, 179*2. " You 
have yourself suggested the principal objections. I 
mean the advanced period of life, and the want of 
early education. There must, in my opinion, be 
very powerful considerations, to induce one circum- 
stanced as you are, in all respects, to strike out a 
new course. It would certainly be thought very odd 
in a traveller, who had performed more than half his 
journey, who had made himself master of the road, 
the geography of the country through which he had 
to pass, and who, knowing the difficulties that would 
naturally present themselves, had learned to overcome 
them, to desert the old beaten path and to enter upon 
a new one, lying through a country rugged and un- 
known. I am by no means satisfied that a change of 
pursuit would either promote your happiness, interest 
or usefulness. But if you are of a different opinion, 
(and you certainly are the best judge,) it would be 
necessary for you to spend a year or two in prepara- 
tory studies, in which it may be in my power, and I 
shall certainly have the inclination, to assist you. I 
have purchased a very good library, as well in other 
branches of learning as in law. A small number of 
these are theological, and excellent of the kind. I 
intend to have a good library in divinity, but I fancy 
it will not be that kind of divinity, which will be 
agreeable to you. 1 have but an indifferent opinion 
of the clergy in this quarter, and think them inferior 



LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 49 

to those of New England. One hears in the churches 
in this elegant and polite city a great deal of rant, 
nonsense and stuff, which would disgust one of our 
country congregations. What must the country here 
be ! I anticipate, with some degree of pleasure, the 
opportunity I shall have of improving the summer 
coming. I am not a man of pleasure, and have been 
even in Philadelphia, more studious than I have been 
at any one period of my life heretofore. I consider 
it as among the number of unfortunate circumstances 
attending me, that I could not have had a good col- 
lection of books when I left college. 

" I am not at all attached to congressional life, and 
can return to private life not only without regret, but 
with much pleasure and satisfaction. My standing 
here is as good as I ought to expect. In time, I 
think I should learn my duty. I have no doubt of 
my independence or integrity, to perform it faith- 
fully." 

In a letter of the same date to his brother John he 
says, " I have written R. If you are right in your 
conjectures as to the new courtship, it will probably 
prove more efficacious in preventing a change of pur- 
suit, than anything I have said in my letter to him.^ 
I begin to form some acquaintances in this city, which 
afford me much pleasure. I am almost in love with 
a little Quaker. They (I mean the ladies of that so- 
ciety) are gay, sprightly, sensible. But you know I 
am easily caught. I am anxious to be home, that I 



^ It was even so ; R. was married, and nothing more was said of a 
change of profession. 



50 LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 

may enter upon that course of study vvhicli I have 
marked out. I must begin. I find I know nothing. 
I shall have an elegant assortment of books. Busi- 
ness goes on very slowly in congress. It is no breach 
of charity to suppose that the members are at least as 
anxious to promote their own, as the interest of the 
public, — I mean in creating offices, and getting them- 
selves or friends appointed to them. For, as to the 
wages and pay of a member, when you deduct the 
expenses, of which you can have no idea, — to say 
nothing of the sacrifices that many must unavoidably 
make in business at home, — it cannot be considered 
as a great temptation to protract the business." 

The consciousness of his own ignorance, not wast- 
ing itself in peevisii remarks on otiiers, but awaken- 
ing within him a longing for improvement, not only 
in his own profession, but in all generous and useful 
studies, was the secret of Mr. Smith's subsequent 
distinction and success. Through life it was his wish 
to fit himself for important stations, and the society 
of distinguished men. If they sought him out, he 
was gratified ; if not, he may have been disappointed ; 
but, in forming and carrying out yet larger plans of 
intellectual advancement, he always had at hand re- 
sources and occupation, which might take from dis- 
appointment its sting, and give a healthy exercise 
both to his mind and heart. 

During the first two sessions of congress that he 
attended, he was, according to his own intimation, 
rather a learner than an actor. His previous experi- 
ence in political life, obliging him to spend so much 
time on the laws of a single state, while it undoubt- 



LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 51 

ediy sharpened his faculties, had yet prevented his 
attending, as he otherwise nnight, to the national 
government, and taking those large views, which 
should direct the legislation of a great people. In 
matters of a more limited and private character, he 
acted with great spirit and discretion ; as, for exam- 
ple, in the case of the invalid pensioners. " It gave 
me pain," he said to a member of the legislature, " to 
learn that after the public (you will excuse me, but I 
mean the former legislatures of New Hampshire,) had 
practised sharping on the poor invalids, by compelling 
them to receive their depreciated paper, that these 
unfortunate souls should have been imposed upon by 
that rascally tribe of speculators and sharpers, who, 
like their master, travel up and down through the 
country, ' seeking whom they may devour.' By ex- 
amining the papers which I enclose, (and which may 
be authenticated if need require,) you will perceive 
how successful W. has been in this speculation. 
You are not unacquainted, I suppose, that congress, 
at their second session, made provision for the pay- 
ment of the arrears of pension, (meaning what was 
due till 4ih March, 1789,) in register certificates, to 
be issued at the treasury of the United States ; and, 
I dare say, know that these certificates are worth 
more than twenty shillings on the pound. If the 
deceit practised on these pensioners, in the instances 
alluded to, can be proved, and they should think it 
advisable to prosecute W., I shall most cheerfully 
procure any evidence that may be necessary at the 
treasury. I never feel so confident that I am in the 
way of my duty, as when I am employed in detecting 



59 LIFE OF JUDGE S>IITH. 

and punishing villany, especially when an honest, 
simple person is the object of that villany." 

In matters of great national interest it may be 
questioned whether Mr. Smith was qualified to act 
with the same discretion, lie examined them from 
too low a jHiint, and came to conclusions which his 
riper judgment could hardly approve. 

'' Some people,'' he said, in a letter to Governor 
Bartlett, April G, 179-2, '* act upon a scale too large 
for me; they talk much of the good of the whole." 

''I asked Mr. John Langdon, if he thought 

New Hampshire would prove a debtor to the Union 
on just settlement." " No.'' '* Then u{ion the 
princi}ilcs of these two assumptions, as contemj>lated 
by the secretary of the treasury, will we not be jniy- 
ing seven or eight hundred thousand dollars of the 
debt of some other state ? " He rejilies, that '* It is 
a great nafioiial measure! — that New Hampshire 
does not contribute her proportion of the public rev- 
enue." "• I write this in the most perfect confidence. 
It does not become me to lay claim to more know- 
ledge or patriotism (I mean fidelity to my state,) than 
other gentlemen possess." 

Hamilton's measure for the assumption of the state 
debts had been adopted before ]Mr. Smith was a mem- 
ber of the house. But he was vehemently opposed to 
it ; and the following extract from a letter to Gov. Bart- 
lett, Dec. '■24, 1791, in respect to a spirited memorial 
on the subject from the legislature of New Hampshire, 
may serve as a specimen of his mode of reasoning at 
that time, '' It was undoubtedly reasonable that the 
claims of the several states, for services and expendi- 



LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 53 

lures in tbc war, should be adjusted on principles of 
ccjuality, in order that the delinquent states should be 
compelled to pay, as well as the creditor states be en- 
titled to receive, the balances respectively due. The 
idea of assuming, or, which is the same thing, paying 
balances, before the accounts are adjusted, is alto- 
gether new. 'T is uncertain ground to go upon, 
and it would be little less than a miracle, if the result 
of the final settlement of accounts should justify this 
measure. If the assumption was intended to give 
relief to the states from the burtfien of their debts 
contracted during the war, it should have gone fur- 
ther, and the whole state debts of this description 
should have been assumed. If it was intended only 
as an advance payment to the states, then the debts 
only of tfiose states to whom balances will probably 
be found due, should have been assumed. Congress 
never could have been influenced by the first of these 
motives in assuming two hundred thousand dollars 
from Delaware, for they owed none ; nor by the se- 
cond of these principles, in assuming twenty-two hun- 
dred thousand dollars from Pennsylvania ; for it seems 
granted, on all hands, that they are a debtor state. 

" I have puzzled my brain, to know upon what 
principles this business was conducted, that I might 
have it in my power to point out the badness of them, 
or show wherein they had deviated from them, if 
good ; for it is clear that injustice has been done. 
But, after the most painful search and inquiry, I have 
never yet been able to find that they were actuated 
in managing this business by any principles at all, 
unless those principles which govern sharpers, right 



54 LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 

or wrong to get the best bargain they can, may be 
denominated such. It has, I confess, always been 
matter of astonishment to me, that there couhl exist 
a man so weak, as to be duped by the states who 
pressed this measure, and who alone were to be gain- 
ers by it. Having troubled you with my sentiments 
on this subject, which I believe are such as generally 
prevailed with the legislature in framing the memo- 
rial referred to, I would take the liberty to observe 
that the idea of rescinding the act assuming the state 
debt is altogether inadmissible, and the thing wholly 
impracticable ; as the rights of individuals have be- 
come blended with public measures and must be held 
sacred." 

These remarks should undoubtedly have weight 
as applied to particular provisions ' of the measure, 
which may have been introduced only to secure the 
support of states that would otherwise have prevented 
its passage ; but they do not even glance at the broad 
principles which lay at the foundation of Hamilton's 
policy, and which prove the greatness of his genius, 
and the jMofound, far-reaching wisdom of his public 
conduct. The union was then little more than a 
political form. It had not been established by the 
happy experience of many years, and strengthened by 
the ailcctions of the people. The constitution, which 
was a compromise of local interests, and adopted by 
a small majority as the best that could be had, was 
not hailed with anything like a general enthusiasm. 



1 Some of tliosc provisions fell with peculiar severity on the slate of 
New Ilanip^liire. 



LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 55 

It was looked upon by its ablest supporters only as 
an experiment. There was no strong attachment to 
it ; and, for some time after it was adopted, among 
the representatives of these several independent states, 
the feelings of national pride and honor, through 
which they were to be bound together as members of 
a great national confederacy, hardly had an existence, 
while local jealousies were even stronger than at the 
present day. The sentiment of loyalty to the parent 
country, which had been weakened by our whole 
experience as colonists, and fatally severed by the 
revolution, had as yet no new object to which it 
might attach itself. That nameless influence, which 
binds a ])CO])le to tlieir country ; the associations, 
which through a thousand years have been cement- 
ing their aflections to their government as by the 
blood of their fathers, and uniting them in one by 
the great achievements and great names, which have 
come down as their common inheritance, had no ex- 
istence here. The common dangers which allied the 
colonies during the war, liad given place to conflict- 
ing interests, and except the name of Washington, 
there was nothing which had enough of a central, 
gravitating power, to draw towards a common point 
the diverging affections of the people, and to serve 
as a nucleus, around which the associations of na- 
tional honor and respect might gather. Washing- 
ton's influence was soon to pass away. And without 
some strong central and centralizing power, the con- 
federacy must soon have split into fragments. In 
this point of view, it is impossible to over-estimate 
the practical and far-reaching wisdom of Hamilton's 



56 LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 

first great measure, the assumption of the state debts. 
As a financial measure, (and, if proposed now, it 
wouhl be viewed only as such,) it may or may not 
liave^ been exjiedient. This was only a secondary 
consideration. In its more extended bearings, as- 
suming as it did on the part of the general govern- 
ment, a national guardiansliip, and serving thus to 
bind into one body these ditlerent and otherwise 
conflicting members, and give to them a national 
character, it answered a far more important end than 
the immediate purpose for which it was designed. 

The great measure of the first session of the second 
congress w^as a bill to increase the army for the pro- 
tection of our frontiers. Mr. Smith voted steadily 
against it. Some remaiks on this subject we have 
already quoted. The following extracts from a letter 
to his brother, John Smith, March, 179:2, relate to 
the same subject. 

'' The annual expense according to calculation 
(and experience always shows that calculations are 
too small,) will exceed a million of dollars, and all 
this to gratify a parcel of fellows, who do not care 
whether the country sinks or swims, provided they 
can make their own fortunes. Land-jobbers and a set 
of rascals on the frontiers, who are interested in kicking 
up a dust, are the cause of the war. I have uniformly 
voted against this standing army, not that I apprehend 
any danger to our liberties from it, but merely because 
I do not like the expense. 1 dare say I am thought 
a very illiberal fellow ; — a term which is here applied 
to every man who votes against large grants, sala- 
ries, Slc, I would not be understood as speaking 



LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 57 

against the powers that be ; though I do not believe 
they are ordained of God. The government is, I 
think, in the main good. I detest faction. There 
are here some very rich men, who certainly do not 
sympathize with their constituents. They affect to 
consider a million of dollars as nothing ! They talk 
of raising money by direct taxation, as a measure 
highly expedient. As long as the money to pay the 
charges of government is raised by the indirect and 
imperceptible mode of impost, excise and duties, the 
people will not murmur at the high salaries, pensions 
and profuse grants ; but the moment recourse is had 
to dry, hard taxation, the spirit of inquiry will be 
roused, and the expenditures will be minutely investi- 
gated. I never wish to see that day arrive. I dare 
say all this political stuff will appear to you extremely 
insipid, now that you have it in your power to em- 
ploy your leisure moments in domestic felicity. 
Blessed change, from the company of drunken randys, 
&.C., to the agreeable society and charming conversa- 
tion of your lovely wife ! " 

Mr. Smith's political opinions, and even the prin- 
ciples on which they might rest, were not yet estab- 
lished. Indeed, the public opinion of tlie country 
was yet unorganized and unformed, without fixed 
rules or principles of political action. From this 
heaving mass of almost chaotic opinions, at first 
hardly perceptibly, but at length through excitements 
and commotions that shook the whole fabric of so- 
ciety, two great political parties were rising into 
shape, and arraying themselves against each other. 
Hamilton and Jefferson were the leaders in this 



5S 



LiFK ov .Trn{;r. s>jith. 



inovoiiionl : hut it nrosi^ tVom raiisos (](\^|vr tliaii tlio 
porst>n;il l\H^liiii;s or opinions ot" the two stuMiMnriov'^. 
Tliov wtMo but the iO[MosiMilativi\s of two «;roat sys- 
tems ot' policy, spriupui:: out of oiu- condition as a 
nation : and however tlicso systems may he alVocted 
by tcm|H>iary nu^asurcs respect ini; war or ]>eace, 
slavery or commerce, or particular electioneerini;- or- 
ganizations, i^rowiui; out of personal or local inter- 
ests, they must still continue to be the princij^les of 
political division, thriMidiout the country. There is 
a constant tendency to foment ill ibelings on the 
score ot" opposite and warriuij: local institutions, and 
if it should i^o on without interruption, it must ne- 
cessarily lead to entire alienation and hostility be- 
tween the two large sections of the country. But 
this other movement, by introducing!: new subjects of 
controversy, and dividiuii: the country on other than 
local grounds, absorbed to itself })assions, which if 
wholly spent in local contests, would long since have 
put an end to our national existence, 'j'hus, when, 
on the assumption o{ the state debts in HlX), New 
IIam[)shire and \irginia were arravcnl against INFassa- 
chusetts and South (^irolina, something was done to 
prevent the organization of the Aorth and the South 
against each other, ami to allay the bitterness o( local 
jealousies. 

The great division into parties was not fairlv per- 
ceptible, until the lirst session of the second con- 
gress. Towards its close, the beginnings of such an 
organization were manifesting themselves. In a let- 
ter to his brother, 'JOth April, HiVJ, Mr. Smith says, 
'* Everything now [at the latter end of the session,] 



r.iKK OF j\:i)(ii: smith. 59 

IjrowH lari;_Mjifl, dull, uiici }K;;jvy ; and t.}if;ro hcj^iuh to 
1)0 fiotfiin^ stirrin^^ amongst, uh, navo a. littlo naf/are, 
wfiicli I br-liovr; will liold r)ijt to \\\<- last. Thoro aro 
two [)artif;s }ioro. I bf-long to noithf-r. I moan the 
friends arxJ r^nomioH of tho funding Hystr.rn. J do 
not find that f)arrnr>ny in tlio f>uhlic oounr-ils wliicfi I 
<;x[K;ctod. 7'lioso wfio aro intoroHto(i in tfio fundH, 
Htof:k, bank, <S/j:., KiJf)[)ort r;vory rnoasuro of tfio so- 
crctary of tiio trcasiiry, wliil.st those who arc out of 
the funds frnoaning the Virginians, &.c. (S/.c. &<c.) 
oppose every measure of iiis, Jiowever wise and 
good. Tfie good of the wfiole is not a primary ob- 
ject witfi eitlier of tliese two classes. Ilia one 
zealously conterjfis for measures wfiieh will terjd to 
increase the public credit, because at tfie same time 
he advances his own private property ; whilst the 
other v/ould be willing, like Samson, to pull down 
the mighty fabric of fjufJic credit and confidence, 
because it would overwhelm liis enemies, (the stock- 
holders, &.C.) thougfi he himself should be buried in 
the ruins." 

The next session of congress (1792-^i) was 
passed without any very important puf>lic measures ; 
but was marked by an increased irritation of jnirty 
feeling, and by the beginning of the difhculties with 
the Frencfi republic. Mr. Smith, wfiose health was 
most of the time poor, continued to look carefully 
into the progress of events, and aj;[>lied himself dil- 
igently to reading, being still, less an actor than one 
preparing himself for future action. In tfje mean 
time he had been reelected, and was evidently much 
gratified by the result. In a letter to his brother, 



(>0 LUK OK .irni;K s>trni. 

John. Novoinbor !.">. 17i)'J. \\v says, "I havo stHMi 
the ovoiit of llio voting lor ivpiw^oiitativos to con- 
i^TOss, iVom Aow llam}ishiio, aiul am ilisappoiiitod 
and oxcooilin^ly i::ratifioii. 1 find I had all tho >otcs 
o[ llillsboioniih. C^hoshiro, and (iralton. and a nui- 
joritv in oaoh o( the olhor countios. I wish my 
iVionds ma^ know how much I i'cc] mysolt" t>l>lii;(Hl, 
bv this llattorinii' \nooi oi thoir atlarhnuMit, and the 
disposition I tool to soizo evoiy opportunity o( tt^sti- 
tVing mv gratitude. I do not think that 1 needed 
anv additional motives to stimulate me to lidelity, 
and the most strenuous exertions to jMomote the in- 
terests o( the state. It' 1 did, this une.vpeeted proof 
of publie contidenee woidd eertainly operate power- 
fully." 

The lollowino- extraets from letters will sullieienUy 
show Mr. Smith's feelings, during the first session of 
the third congress. 

To Samuel Smith. February, ni)3. " I approve 
of your passion for Miss C : }>rosecute it with ar- 
dor. I am under the intluenee oi' a similar passion 
— a hopeless one too. I don't mean that my fair 
one frowns on me ; in that ease I should very soon 
cease to love her. l>ut iMudenee dietates to me the 
improj^riely oi' such an attachment, and probably the 
same prudence suggests the same thing to her. A 
riiiladelphia belle would make a strange wit'e lor a 
poor man in New Ilami>shire. What a strange set 
of creatures we are ! It seems to me now that I 
never sincerely loved before. God grant that time 
and absence may have their usual elVects. 

" I was determined to purchase no more books, 



JAVE OF JUiXiK SMITif. 61 

yf;t. I have expcrKJf^d sixty or sov(;r)t,y dollars in tliat 
way. This raj^o for f>ooks will ruin rnf; ; and that. 
rago for building mills, barns, danjs, poarl-asli 
hoijsos and castlos, will, I foar, prove the d(;st ruction 
of you." 

To his f>rot,hor Sarnuol, 2rit.h January, 1794, he 
writes: — " Wo are now debating the propositions 
made by Mr. Madison, for laying additional duties 
on tfic manufactures of Great JJritain. If tliese 
should obtain, it will still more favor the American 
manufacturer. I shall oppose these resolutions, be- 
cause I conceive they will upon the whole be inju- 
rious. If I consulted no interest but yours, I believe 
I should favor the resolutions." 

To llobert Fletcher, Esq., 12th February, 1794, 
lie says : " I am sorry that French politics gain 
ground witfi you. They are my utter abhorrence. 
I almost hate the name of a Frenchman. They have 
opened some leaves in the volume of human nature, 
that I never believed were in tfie book. Ha^y have 
done tlie cause of liberty an irreparable injury. I 
do not wish them success. Their princifjies are hos- 
tile to all government, even to ours, which is cer- 
tainly the best. Vou will fjave seen Madison's pro- 
positions to regulate commerce ; calculated to stir up 
a war between Cireat liritain and us. I attribute 
these propositions to French influence. I do not 
mean that the advocates of tliese measures are bribed 
by Citizen (jenet ; but I consider them as resulting 
from tliat childish and nonsensical attachment they 
appear to have for Frenchmen and Frencli politics, 
which leads them to put in hazard the true interests 
6 



69 LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 

of this country, to gratify their resentment against 
Great Britain. It is now certain, beyond all possi- 
bility of doubt, that Genet, in his constant and un- 
remitted endeavors to plunge this country into the 
war, was only pursuing the instructions he received 
from his government. Though this may in some 
measure palliate his abominable lies, duplicity, &c., 
yet it ought to make us hate and detest his nation. 
On these resolutions, your brother Dexter ' made a 
very eloquent and sensible speech, which was uni- 
versally applauded ; and his character already stands 
high. There is no danger of his sinking in public 
estimation, for his talents are solid, and his integrity 
and honesty inflexible." 

To Samuel Smith, 14th April, 1794, he writes : 
" We are now debating the propriety of withdraw- 
ing ourselves from any commercial intercourse with 
Great Britain. I think it will pass the house, but 
fail, at least in its present shape, at the senate. We 
are in a most horrible passion ! How we should 
act, provided there was any fighting in the case, I 
can't say, but certain it is that we scold most cour- 
ageously." 

In a letter to William Plummer, dated 8th May, 
1794, he says : '' My dear friend, your letter of the 
28th April, I received by the last mail. It could not 
fail of giving me pleasure, as it contained assurances 
that my political conduct has your approbation, as 
well as that of ' the more considerate and well-in- 
formed ' among the people at large. I have been, 

1 Hon. Samuel Dexter, of Massachusetts. 



LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 63 

and I believe always shall be, among the number of 
those who deprecate war. Those who have, in the 
course of the session, advocated Madison's resolu- 
tions, sequestration, the bill to suspend the trade and 
intercourse between the United States and Great 
Britain, and other measures of a similar nature, make 
the same profession ; at least most of them do so. 
I have no doubt but that some of them are honest ; 
some of them are not. Taylor and Monroe, the two 
Virginia senators, on Monday, moved in the senate, 
for leave to bring in a bill to suspend the execution 
of the fourth article of the treaty of peace, that is, to 
put a stop to the collection of British debts. This 
leads us strongly to suspect, that their hostility and 
rage against Great Britain, is not so much the pure 
fire of patriotism, (which they pretend,) as it is the 
flame of self-interest. In this motion they were most 
shamefully defeated, and, upon a division, stood alone. 
Their friends thought the measure too glaring, and 
deserted them, leaving the senate, when the question 
w^as taken. I know it is common for parties to charge 
each other with bad intentions, sometimes, no doubt, 
without any foundation. Both may mean honest, 
but I believe that is not the case at present. They 
charge us with monarchical and aristocratical princi- 
ples ; with designs to change the constitution, and 
subject the people to slavery ; with being the agents 
of Great Britain ; under British influence ; friends 
of the funding system, and in favor of a great na- 
tional debt. Now this is so impudent a calumny, 
and so without the shadow of probability, that I do 
not believe that they believe a syllable of the matter 



64 LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 

themselves ; and yet in tliis ignorant and stupid 
place, tliere are not wanting persons who are trem- 
bling for their liberties, and really alarmed for their 
privileges. The democratic societies have under- 
taken the guardianship of the rights of the people. 
They are ever and anon blowing the trump of fac- 
tion, and warning the people of their danger ; puff- 
ing the members of congress who are for sequestering 
British debts, and widening, instead of healing, the 
breach between Great Britain and us. Need I add, 
tliat this renders our situation uncomfortable — to 
me it is hateful. This zealous attachment to the 
rights of the jyeople, this bellowing against mon- 
archy, aristocracy, national debt, &c., this scorching 
fire of patriotism would be suspected, with us in 
New Hampshire, but here it answers a good pur- 
pose." 

Mr. Smith now felt more at home, and enjoyed 
himself more than at any j)revious session. " On 
the 9th of June," says Marshall, " this active and 
stormy session was closed, by an adjournment to the 
first Monday of the succeeding November." The 
next session was to have commenced on the 3d 
of November, but there was not a quorum till the 
18th. Party divisions had become more fixed, 
and entered more deeply into social and personal 
relations ; motives, as well as measures, were se- 
verely commented upon ; and if less was done than 
at the previous session, it was only because the tem- 
pestuous strife had subsided into a sullen calm, while 
both parties awaited with anxious interest the result 
of the mission to England. 



LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 65 

The following extracts will show what were the 
feelings of that day. 

To Samuel Smith, 20th November, 1794. " I in- 
close the president's speech. It is very popular with 
the friends to government ; we consider what he 
says of self-created societies, and combinations, dis- 
regarding truth, Slc, stirring up insurrections, &c., 
as too applicable to democratic clubs, &c., to admit 
of any mistake as to the application of it ; we smile, 
and they pout. They feel it. Let their mortifica- 
tion be increased tenfold." 

To the same, 29th November, 1794. " We have 
been engaged the whole week in framing an answer 
to the president's speech. The persons with whom 
I act wished to express an opinion that the demo- 
cratic clubs had fomented and stirred up the insur- 
rection, in the western counties of Pennsylvania. 
This was opposed by our southern brethren, who feel 
a wonderful sympathy with these inflammatory clubs. 
On the question, which we considered as the main 
one, the house was equally divided, and the speaker, 
who belongs to a club of democrats, gave the casting 
vote against us, so that our answer is chips and por- 
ridge. I feel provoked. What a mercy it is that I 
have not your troubles to add to mine, and that you 
have not mine to add to yours ! " 

To John Smith, 6th December, 1794. " An ac- 
count of congressional proceedings would give you 
no pleasure. Except the attack on democratic clubs, 
we have scarce had any debate and very little busi- 
ness. We are lying on our oars till we hear from 
Mr. Jay. If his mission is favorable, we shall do 
very well ; if not, the devil will be to pay." 
6* 



66 LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 

Mr. Smith's interest in public affairs may be seen 
in the following extracts, relating to the election of 
United States' senator from New Hampshire. His 
temperament was one of the most hopeful, and hardly 
in all his confidential papers, have I found anything 
like despondency or gloom. What follows here, as 
in many other parts of this memoir, is of course to be 
taken as a picture of the writer's feelings at the time, 
and not as an impartial estimate of character. 

To William Gordon, Esq., 17th December, 1794. 
"It is quite natural, too, that your detected villains, who 
dread the whip of the law, should contemplate with 
satisfaction the annihilation of order and government ; 
but that a man circumstanced as Mr. L. is, should 
lend his aid to the enemies of the rights of property, 
to the enemies of order and good government, the 
enemies of the peace, and, in my opinion, the inde- 
pendence of this country, these things surprise me. 
Perhaps Mr. L. does not intend any such thing. A 
man is in a situation not much to be envied, when 
his friends are under the necessity of justifying his 
heart at the expense of his head. Besides, in the 
present case, it w^ould be peculiarly unfortunate ; be- 
cause friend L. can suffer very little deduction there, 
without being reduced to a size w^hich would baflle 
the naked eye, and even set at defiance all the mi- 
croscopes that have yet been invented. Our affairs 
are, at present, so critically circumstanced, that a 
single vote in the senate is worth perhaps as much as 
the peace, prosperity, and happiness of our country. 
I am mortified that New Hampshire should be divided 
as they are in the senate, on all occasions where na- 



LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 61 

tional questions are involved. Undoubtedly every 
public man should act his opinions, whatever they 
may be ; but certainly I would not choose an agent 
who should do the things I would not. Besides, I 
can hardly muster up charity enough, with all I can 
borrow from my friends, to persuade myself that these 
things are the effects of conviction. He has been 
flattered into a belief, that if he will wear the south- 
ern livery, he shall be made the second man, as it 
were. Now though this flattery is gross, yet that 
is no reason why it should not be greedily devoured. 
Flattery, unlike other food, seems to be swallowed the 
more greedily, the coarser it is. But I am running 
into reflections which always make me gloomy. This 
same government of ours is built on the pillars of 
public virtue and public opinion, say our wise men. 
The wise and the good, when united, are still a 
minority, I fear. When desertions take place, the 
case becomes desperate, and in such a case, true wis- 
dom consists, not in attempting any longer to support 
the tottering fabric, but in running away, as far as 
you can, so as not to be injured by its fall." 

To R. Fletcher, 3d January, 1795. "I am anx- 
ious to hear who is chosen senator. The lot is by 
this time cast. I am afraid ' the Lord has had no- 
thing to do with the disposing thereof.' Supposing 
L. to be the man, I am beginning to reconcile myself 
to it. If he is not elected, he will, I fear, be soured, 
and rear up an anti-federal party in the state ; set up 
democratic clubs, and poison the pure principles of 
our virtuous citizens. Let our people fall into the 
hands of the devil, but let them not fall into the 



68 LIFE. OF JUDGE SMITH. 

hands of these men ; famine, the plague, and pesti- 
lence are nothing to it. By the way, we are all 
hugely pleased with parson Osgood's Thanksgiving 
sermon ; we extol him to the third heaven, and 
swoar (it is in a good cause you know) that he was 
inspired ! If the virtuous members of congress 
(meaning those of our party) had the power to confer 
degrees, he would instantly be daubed over with 
tides. We think he as richly deserves it, as ever 
King William, in Corporal Trim's opinion, did a 
crown. It is proposed to print an edition in this 
city, for the use of our brethren at the southward. 
We are afraid, if we do not alter the title-page, it will 
be a sealed book. But, what is very unusual, it has 
been published entire in a newspaper in this citv, 
and, I believe, read by many people who were never, 
in the whole course of their lives, in the inside of a 
church. I am charmed with your picture of a family 
party at Christmas. It must be the most delightful 
thing in the world. Tell Mrs. F. that I should have 
been very happy to have made one of your little so- 
ciety, and that I am confident she enjoyed far more 
pleasure, surrounded by her children and friends, 
than Mrs. Dexter, at Mr. Bingham's, Mr. Morris's, or 
even the President's sumptuous dinner. I was sin- 
gularly happy on that day myself; dined with a num- 
ber of my friends at Mr. Wolcott's, (who, by the 
way, will be secretary of the treasury, in the room of 
Col. Hamilton,) and spent the evening in company 
with a divine woman I have lately become ac- 
quainted with, and who is all that woman can or 
ought to be ; but, heigh ho ! she is as good as mar- 



LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 69 

ried. I am glad I was informed of that circumstance, 
else I should have been over head and ears in love. 
Informed of my danger, I find it difficult to restrain 
my ardent aflections. I am glad to find that I am 
not dried up and congealed, but that my heart is as 
susceptible as ever. I had rather be a man, and feel 
as such, even if I suffer by it, than be one of your 
insensible devils." 

To R. Fletcher, Esq., January 7th, 1795. " You 
wish for a list of congressional actions. There are 
but few entries, and those few unimportant. I was 
doubtful whether we could have spun out the time 
till the third of March ; but, thanks to some of our 
chattering geniuses, we are out of all danger of a 
premature death. We are of opinion with good old 
Cato, in another case, that we ought to draw our term 
of service out, and spin it to the last ; and that one 
year of congressional life is better than a whole eter- 
nity at home. I will enclose some newspapers, if I 
can pick them up before I seal this letter, by which 
you will see that we have been much engaged in 
amending the law for the naturalization of aliens, 
particularly a motion made by Mr. Giles, to make 
it necessary for an alien nobleman, previous to his 
becoming a citizen, to renounce his title. This 
naturalization is very warm work. 

^' Giles's motion prevailed. It was made, I pre- 
sume, with a view to cast odium on the New England 
aristocrats, who, it was foreseen, would vote against 
the motion, as altogether frivolous and ridiculous. I 
dare swear it will occasion a great bustle, and that 
the Independent Chronicle, (that is a paper entirely 



70 LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 

devoted to a party,) will teem with abuse. Here 's 
a fine set of fellows for you ! for introducing nobility 
from Europe ! Don't you tremble, my friend, for 
the liberties of your poor country ? Depend upon it, 
we are in great danger from the introduction of mon- 
archy and aristocracy. We shall certainly be tricked 
out of our liberties if we are not very jealous ! Here 
you see what a narrow escape we have had ; even 
Madison, the watchful guardian of American liber- 
ties, the vigilant Madison, slept. He brought in the 
bill, and had omitted this clause. But the saviours 
of our country must come from the south — his col- 
league, Giles, has the consolation to reflect that he 
has rescued us from the most imminent danger ! Let 
the praises of the geese who saved Rome, no longer 
engross the public approbation ; certainly, in all mo- 
desty, Giles may divide the matter with them. Don't 
tell me there is no danger ; oh blindness and stupid- 
ity ! Fools can fear when there is any danger — 
wise men manage the matter much better ; they, 
honest and sagacious souls, espy dangers that never 
did, and never can exist. Did not Rome produce a 
Caisar ? Think of that ! May not America do the 
same ? Answer me that. Who would, then, place 
any confidence in a public officer ? Certainly not 
true republicans ; they know that the only way to be 
faithfully served, is to distrust and abuse all their oth- 
cers. Let monarchs caress and reward their faith- 
ful and trusty friends and servants. TJiey must be 
strangely ignorant of human nature, indeed ! Our 
method is botli economical and safe ; first, to cheat 
them out of their wages, and then, to prevent the 



LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 71 

effect of their clamor on the world, vilify and abuse 
their characters. Huzza for the new invented max- 
ims of government ! Pardon me, my friend, I can 
proceed no furtlier ; I am so sick of this nonsense, 
which is daily ringing in my ears, that I ardendy 
long for the moment when I shall bid adieu to Phila- 
delpliia, and exchange its follies, noise and nonsense, 
for the simphcity, the quiet and peaceful regions of 
New Hampshire." 

To Samuel Smith, 31st January, 1795. "The 
time of our dissolution draws near, and I, like other 
good Christians, view its approach with calmness and 
serenity, indeed with pleasure. I can give up the 
plays, parties and public entertainments of the city, 
for the repose and wholesome atmosphere of the 
country, and make a good exchange. Not being a 
man of pleasure, I make but little sacrifice in quitting 
the gay scenes ; my brethren here cannot all say so. 
Many of them plunge into the vortex of dissipation ; 
they do not always escape unhurt, but like the mari- 
ners, who have been shipwrecked in nine voyages, 
will venture on the tenth." 

To the same, 1 1th February, 1795. " There is now 
no doubt that the treaty of commerce, &c. is con- 
cluded by Mr. Jay, with the British court ; though it 
has not arrived in America yet. The uneasy spirits 
who have used their endeavors to plunge this coun- 
try into the war which desolates Europe, have opened 
their foul mouths against it, though they do not even 
know what it contains. This is no reason, however, 
why they should not abuse it, and they would act 
inconsistently with themselves, if they did not shoot 



72 LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 

arrows in the dark, and endeavor to wound the char- 
acter and conduct of those to whom this country is 
indebted lor the peace and j^rosperity we now enjoy. 
The supreme court of the United States has been 
one week in session. I have been pretty constant in 
my attendance there and in conpess. so tliat I have 
but httle leisure or time that I can call my own." 

To the same, 25th February, 1795. " Your letter 
on INIonday found us all up in arms ; the whole city 
turned topsy-turvy, mad with joy. It was the day 
we celebrate the president's birth. We had a great 
deal of marching and counter-marching, processions, 
tiring of cannon, ringing of bells, S:c. Everybody 
waited on his highness, to congratulate him on the 
event of his growing old. In the evening a very 
splendid ball w^as given in honor of the day. The 
president and lady, the ministry, foreign ambassadors, 
the members of the two houses, attended. Such a 
display of beauty, dress, vtc. my eyes never beheld 
before. If the president does not rejoice that he is 
a year older, I am sure he might be glad that he is* 
one day further advanced. Monday must have been 
very fatiguing to him. I will not be president, even 
at thirty thousand dollars per annum, though that 
would be a fine thing to keep your mills a-going. 
The treaty, concluded by Mr. Jay, does not arrive ; 
it is said the vessels intrusted with it and duplicates, 
have been taken and lost, so that we do not expect 
it before the adjournment, which is next Tuesday. 
The session has been rather peaceable, it bids fair to 
end in a dead calm. I begin to hope that our polit- 
ical sky will become more serene. Last winter, it 
was stormy enough, in all conscience." 



LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 78 

During his whole congressional course, Mr. Smith 
was, perhaps, more intent upon becoming a lawyer 
tlian a statesman. Whenever his other duties would 
allow it, he constantly attended in the supreme court 
of the United States, to make himself familiar with 
the ablest practice at the bar, and the best judicial 
forms. He was also deeply interested in the New 
Hampshire courts. In a letter to his brother John, 
January 31, 1795, who was then in the legislature of 
New Hampshire, he asks, in reference to tiie chief 
justice, " Why did you not remove him ? Surely 
there has been time enough for experiment. Want 
of nerves, (or whatever his disorder may be,) as 
eflfectUEdly disqualifies him for the office he holds, as 
want of integrity or capacity. If he and D. were 
both removed, I do not believe the vacancies would 
be well filled ; but the main thing is, to have them 
filled with men who would do their duty in attending 
at the several terms ; for be assured, it is of more 
importance that causes should be tried, than that 
they should be well tried." Singularly enough a let- 
ter dated the 3d of February, 1795, came to Mr. 
Smith, from the Hon. James Sheafe, one of the most 
wealthy, influential and respectable men in New 
Hampshire, and Mr. Smith's warm personal friend, 
urging him to use ^his influence in securing the ap- 
pointment of this same gentleman to the office of 
district judge of the United States. Mr. Smith's 
reply may be taken as a specimen of mild but manly 
independence, such as cannot be too strongly recom- 
mended to our public men. " Dear sir : your letter 
of the 3d February I received by the last mail. Mr. 
7 



74 LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 

P. was appointed district judge before your letter 
came to hand. I congratulate you on this event, and 
assure you that I participate in the pleasure it must 
aflbrd him and his friends. You will not call my 
sincerity in these professions in question, when I add 
that I should have given my voice, if I had been con- 
sulted, in favor of another I am very happy 

to learn that Mr. P.'s health is restored ; it is the 
only circumstance which has prevented his talents 
from being eminently useful to his fellow-citizens." 

Mr. P.'s abilities, legal attainments, and integrity 
were unquestioned, but if Mr. Smith's advice had 
been followed, it would have been better for all 
concerned. The public would not have been shocked 
by what seemed, in his conduct, a burlesque upon 
the solemn forms of justice ; his friends would have 
been spared the pain of finding that attributed to 
fraud, which was only the result of mental derange- 
ment, nor would the nation have witnessed the sad 
spectacle of its highest tribunal removing from the 
bench, by impeachment, a worthy man, whose facul- 
ties, at the time, were not such as to enable him to 
answer, or even to understand, the charges that were 
brought against him. It was not the least singular 
part of these extraordinary proceedings that he, who 
was the most active in removing him, and who suc- 
ceeded to his place, passed the latter portion of his 
life under the same heavy calamity, which through 
his influence had been solemnly imputed to his pre- 
decessor as a crime ! 



yr 



CHAPTER IV. 

1795 — 1797. 

IN CONGRESS JAy's TREATY FISHER AMES 

MR. smith's marriage WASHINGTON. 

The next session of congress was one of those criti- 
cal points in our history, which give a direction for 
years to the course of pubhc events, and estabhsh 
that interpretation of the constitution on which the 
stabihty of the government depends. Difficuhies, 
which, unless soon settled, must inevitably have led 
to war, had, since the peace of 1783, existed be- 
tween this country and Great Britain. In the spring 
of 1794, John Jay, then chief justice of the United 
States, was appointed envoy extraordinary to adjust 
these difficulties. He arrived in London the 1 5th 
of June, and on the 19th of November had suc- 
ceeded in forming with the British government a 
treaty of amity, commerce, and navigation, which 
was not, however, received at the department of 
state in this country, till the 7th of March, 1795, 
a few days after the adjournment of congress. No 
pains, as we have seen by Mr. Smith's letters, had 



76 LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 

been spared to excite a violent prejudice against it, 
before any of its provisions were known, and even 
before it was certain tliat a treaty had been formed. 
On the Sth of June, tlie vice-president and senate 
met, and on the 24th, after having given to it the 
full and serious deliberation which the importance of 
the subject demanded, by a vote of precisely two- 
thirds, advised and consented to its conditional rati- 
fication, and adjourned without removing the injunc- 
tion of secrecy. But, immediately, an imperfect 
abstract, and, in a few days, a complete, but, of 
course, unauthorized copy of the treaty, was pub- 
lished. In the whole history of political and party 
strife, it would not be easy to find a more violent 
attempt to poison, mislead, and exasperate the pub- 
lic mind, than now ensued. Everywhere public 
meetings were held, and by inflammatory harangues, 
misrepresenting the conditions of the treaty, and 
holding it up as fraught with consequences the 
most ruinous and dishonorable, the passions and pre- 
judices of the people were roused to the highest 
pitch. Addresses, almost simultaneously, from all 
parts of the union, from Boston, New York, Phila- 
delphia, Baltimore, and Charleston, and then from 
the smaller towns and remote country districts, were 
poured in uj)on the president, urging him not to give 
his assent to the treaty. " It is difficult," says Judge 
Marshall,' '' to review the various resolutions and 
addresses to which the occasion gave birth, without 
feeling some degree of astonishment mingled with 

1 Lifo of Washington, vol. v. p. G'26, 



LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 77 

humiliation, at perceiving such proofs of the deplor- 
able fallibility of human reason." Yet while the 
one party were so violent in assailing the treaty, the 
other was not equally prepared to defend it, and, for 
a time, seemed bent down by the rush of the popular 
torrent. To the president the condition of things 
was perplexing in the extreme. In a private letter 
to the secretary of state, dated the 29th of July, he 
says, " I have never, since I have been in the admin- 
istration of the government, seen a crisis which, in 
my opinion, has been as pregnant with interesting 
events, nor one from wliich more is to be appre- 
hended." But he was not moved from his purpose. 
'' All these things," he added, in a letter from Mount 
Vernon, of the 3d August, " do not shake my deter- 
mination with respect to the proposed ratification." 
He reached Philadelphia the 11th of August, and on 
the 18th signed the treaty. Until now no attack 
had been made upon the president. Whatever else 
had been assailed, party violence, in its extremest 
rage, had not dared to lift its hand against the spot- 
less majesty of his character. But now it was more 
than insinuated, not only that he had violated the 
constitution, for which an impeachment was publicly 
suggested, but that he had drawn from the treas- 
ury, for his private use, more than the salary an- 
nexed to his office. So boldly, and with such a 
show of evidence, was this charge made, that the 
confidence of some, even among the faithful, was for 
a moment shaken, and they feared lest some signal 
indiscretion or mistake might be proved. But party 
malevolence itself was, at once and forever, silenced 



78 LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 

on that point by the statement of Colonel Hamilton, 
who, though not in office since the last day of Jan- 
uary, had been secretary of the treasury at the 
time the peculation was said to have taken place. 

Another event meantime had occurred, which, for 
a short while, almost rivalled the British treaty in the 
interest it awakened. Through a letter from the 
French minister, M. Fauchet, which had been inter- 
cepted on its way to France, circumstances, never 
yet satisfactorily explained, were brought to light, 
which left strong suspicions on the mind of the pre- 
sident, that Edmund Randolph, who, on the 1st of 
January, 1794, had succeeded Mr. Jefferson as se- 
cretary of state, had been drawn into an improper, 
if not criminal, intercourse with the French govern- 
ment. The president, to whom the letter had been 
communicated by the British minister, in the pres- 
ence of the other members of the cabinet, handed it 
to Mr. Randolph, who, on reading it, immediately 
and indignantly resigned his office. This took place 
on the 19th of August, the day after the treaty had 
been signed by the president. 

When congress met in December, 1795, it ap- 
peared that a large majority of the house were op- 
posed to the late measures of the administration. 
The treaty, which had been only conditionally rati- 
fied, was waiting till the conditions should be as- 
sented to by the British government, and therefore, 
except in the address upon the president's message, 
could not in the early part of the session, be brought 
before the house, which was mostly taken up with 
matters not of a party nature. Among other things. 



LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 79 

with that passion for stage effect, which is so charac- 
teristic of the nation, the flag of the French repub- 
lic was, through the president, presented to congress, 
as a mark of the enthusiastic attachment existing 
between the two governments. It was difficult for 
Washington to refuse this token of friendship, and 
yet, with his severe taste, it was also difficult to 
know how to receive it. The great topic, however, 
of interest through the winter, was the treaty, which, 
at length, on the last day of February, was an- 
nounced to the people of the United States, by a 
proclamation of the president, which on the follow- 
ing day was communicated to the two branches of 
the legislature. 

The feelings which, while the house were engaged 
on other subjects, had been but poorly concealed, 
now burst out with open violence. The contest was 
begun by a resolution offijred by Mr. Livingston, of 
New York, requesting the president to lay before 
them the instructions of Mr. Jay, and the corres- 
pondence, and other documents relating to the nego- 
tiation. After an exciting debate, in which all the 
powers of reasoning and the passions of party strife 
were engaged, the resolution was carried, on the 
24th of March, by a vote of sixty-two to thirty- 
seven. 

The president, after deliberately weighing the sub- 
ject, on the 30th of March sent to the house a mes- 
sage, in which, with great dignity and firmness, he 
refused to comply with the request. This decisive 
step seemed to break the last cord of union between 
him and the leaders of the opposition. An angry 



80 LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 

discussion followed on the treaty-making power, and 
resolutions adverse to the message were passed, by a 
large majority. Another battle-field, however, still 
remained. On the 13th of April, when a bill to 
make appropriations for carrying out the treaty, was 
introduced, the whole matter was again brought up 
under a new aspect, and a debate yet more remark- 
able for strength of argument, and the earnestness of 
its appeals to the lowest and the loftiest of political 
passions, was finally closed on the 30th of April, 
two days after Fisher Ames's great speech, which 
produced an effect probably never exceeded by any 
speech in the halls of congress. 

Time had now been given to the people for ma- 
ture consideration. The first vehement emotions 
had subsided. Misrepresentations had been cor- 
rected ; argument had succeeded to declamation, 
and, through the writings of the ablest men, espe- 
cially the essays of Camillus,' the popular current 
was changed. As before against the treaty, so now 
in its favor, petitions from all quarters came pouring 
in upon congress, and the majority of the house, to 
their consternation, found themselves supported by a 
minority of the people. This produced such an 
effect, that when the vote was finally taken in the 
committee of the whole, on the '^9th of April, the 
bill was passed by the casting vote of the chair- 
man, and on the following day the house came to 
the same decision, by a vote of fifty-one to forty-eight. 

In the debates of this session, Mr. Smith took a 

' Alexander Hamilton. 



LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 81 

more active part than at any time before. Those of 
his speeches ' that I have seen, are, vt^hat they purport 
to be, discussions, in which facts and principles are 
brought to bear, with great force, on particular subjects, 
under particular circumstances, and generally with 
reference to particular men. They are remarkable 
for the skill with which everything adventitious is set 
aside, and the subject held up in its naked simplicity. 
With most of them the interest, when they were de- 
livered, must have been greatly increased by the 
good-humored, but sometimes exceedingly severe per- 
sonal thrusts, dealt, as it were, in sport, while, with- 
out turning to the right hand or to the left, the 
speaker goes steadily forward to the complete eluci- 
dation of the subject. Their merit, like that of a 
judicial decision, consists in the force of the whole ; 
parts cannot be given as samples ; and, unlike a legal 
opinion, they are to be viewed not only with refer- 
ence to the exact nature and bearings of the question, 
and the facts connected with it, but with a full un- 
derstanding of the position of individuals, and the cir- 
cumstances connected with each particular stage of 
the discussion. In the latter part of his life, Mr. 
Smith himself attached little value to them. But in 
them he showed himself a skilful debater, and an 
able defender of Washington's administration. 

The following extracts from letters will show what 
were his feelings, and may serve also as a running 



1 Mr. Webster has ^aid of his speeches that they are excellent ; es- 
pecially some of them on constitutional points. His speech on the Brit- 
ish treaty the 16th March, for instance, may he commended as a clear, 
direct, strong, judicial statement of a constitutional argument. 



82 LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 

commentary on the events of the day. During the 
previous session, his letters had been almost despond- 
ing. But now, in the heart of the conflict, though 
himself, on a subject which he considered of such 
vital consequence, in a small minority, his letters 
were full not only of hope, but of a boyish glee ; 
hardly in a single instance, till after the contest was 
successfully ended, did they exhibit anything of doubt 
or gloom. He was not a man to be cowed down by 
what seemed an overwhelming opposition. So that 
he could but meet them fairly, his strength and cour- 
age were only roused by difliculties and dangers. 
Through life this sportiveness under circumstances 
which filled others with apprehension and gloom, was 
a marked feature in his character, and bore him up, 
when otherwise he must have sunk by the way. 

To John Smith, 12th December, 1795. ''It is 
now a week since I arrived at this place, (Philadel- 
phia.) I am still very much of an invalid, my cold, 
as was to be expected, rather increased than dimin- 
ished on the journey. I am taking every precaution 
to prevent its continuance, and hope in a few days 
to be able to give a good account of it. I called on 
my friend Ames, and spent a night at his house. I 
think he is on the mending hand, but his recovery 
will be but slow, and he will not be able to give his 
attendance here till towards spring, if at all. We 
have scarcely entered on business. The president's 
speech 1 enclose. You will see that he treads lightly 
on the treaty. It is diflicult to see how we can find 
an opportunity to abuse him in our answer, but, as I 
believe a majority of our house are in the opposition, 



LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 83 

it is more than probable that some censure will be 
mingled in our answer. Not a word as to Mr. Ran- 
dolph. His affairs seem still enveloped in mystery. 
When the curtain shall be drawn, which is to disclose 
the hidden things of darkness, is altogether uncertain. 
I am not so agreeably circumstanced as to company, 
as last winter. I miss my friend Ames very much." 
To the Hon. John Taylor Oilman,' 16th December, 
1795. " Dear sir : I have just read your address to 
the legislature at the opening of the present session, 
and cannot deny myself the pleasure of assuring you 
that it has given me the highest satisfaction. That 
the federal government is a foreign one, that its ad- 
ministrators and its measures are to be viewed through 
the medium of apprehension and jealousy, are senti- 
ments cherished by many in high office in some of 
the states. They are sentiments no less false than 
pernicious. From this cause, it has happened that 
scarce a measure of the general government has es- 
caped censure, and the most virulent and unprovoked 
abuse has been levelled against every man actively 
concerned in its administration. The honest and 
patriotic have experienced what the guilty and cor- 
rupt alone could merit. When faction has been con- 
sidered as the surest test of patriotism, and calumny 
as the proper reward for faithful services, it requires 



I A man whose sound judgment and uprightness were alike honorable 
to himself and to the people of the state, who, in fourteen different elec- 
tions, chose him for their governor. " He furnished," said Judge Smith, 
*' a living proof that firmness and independence of mind, joined with 
integrity and talents, may he popular. Yet he was not in the habit of 
addressing himself to popular passions and popular prejudices," 



84 LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 

but little political sagacity to foresee what kind of 
pilots we shall soon have at the helm of our political 
shi}). In every society there are men, — the virtu- 
ous, the industrious, and the good, — (in this coun- 
try they are a great majority,) who are interested in 
the preservation of order and good government. It 
is a vain expectation that society is, or ever will be, 
composed of no other descriptions of character ; there 
will always be drones in every hive, and there will 
always be ambitious men desirous of climbing up the 
ladder of political power and eminence ; there will 
always be popular topics to catch the giddy and un- 
thinking. It will always be the duty of good men, 
and especially of those who share largely in the con- 
tidence of their fellow-citizens, by a manly and ex- 
plicit avowal of their sentiments on all proper occa- 
sions, to counteract the views of the enemies of our 
public peace. I am persuaded that the present crisis 
demands such a line of conduct ; I am pleased that 
you have adopted it. I am persuaded if your exam- 
ple were followed in the ditlerent states, the efiects 
would be the most favorable that can be imagined. 
The contidence which you express in the president, 
Mr. Jay and the senate, is, I am confident, deserved. 
It is totally different from implicit faith, and blind 
obedience to persons in power ; and were 1 to look 
for these last quaUties, base and abject as they are, I 
should exi)ect to find them, not among the men who 
bestow a just confidence where it is justly due, but 
among the false patriots and demagogues of the pre- 
sent day. The answer of your house of representa- 
tives, as it evinces a unanimous concurrence in the 



LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 85 

sentiments advanced by you, must be flattering and 
gratifying in the highest degree. That the state I 
have tfie honor to represent should, on this occasion, 
so honorably distinguish tliemselves, as the friends of 
rational liberty, good order and good government, 
affords me a satisfaction which I can find no words 
to express. There surely can be nothing more agree- 
able than to find that one's sentiments are in perfect 
harmony with that of the people at large. Mr. R.'s 
long-expected vindication is at length promised for 
Friday next. Little doubt seems to be entertained 
of his having been improperly wrought upon by Fau- 
chet. It will not be easily credited that Mr. R. is 
the first on whom attempts have been made by our 
virtuous sister." 

To John Smith, 29th January, 1796. " We have 
not passed a single bill, and have been in session 
eight weeks. I do not think that this is against us ; 
we are maturing business. If the state legislatures 
should, in this respect, imitate us, it would be better. 
Not so many of your bills at the last session would 
have been negatived. The great danger is, that we 
legislate too much. There is some business of con- 
siderable importance under deliberation, and I think 
the session will not terminate before the latter end of 
April. I do not think much mischief will be done. 
There will be an attack, we are told, on the treaty, 
when it is laid before us ; and we expect in a few 
days to commence a discussion on the propriety of 
giving more encouragement to our own shipping. 
As this will be at the expense of the agriculture of 
the country, I shall oppose it. I like the independ- 
8 



86' LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 

ence of Governor Oilman, and think it will event- 
ually operate in his favor. Perhaps the bill he ob- 
jected to was a good one, but still, I believe he acted 
uprightly, and therefore I approve of his conduct. 
I write this in the midst of a debate on the ques- 
tion, whether we should employ a stenographer, 
or short-hand writer, to take down the debates of the 
house." 

To the Hon. Fisher Ames, 14th January, 1796. 
" As to your inquiries about Randolph's connexion 
with Fauchet, how far it went I am altogether igno- 
rant. The despatches No. 11, &c., luckily for the 
parties, have not been intercepted. If Randolph has 
not, since October, '94, ' touched something real,' it 
must have arisen from the cause mentioned by the 
Citizen, and which he seems to regret exceedingly, 
namely, that he had no cash, more tiian suflicient for 
himself; and though our allies are vastly civil, in 
leading their friends to some very pretty amusement, 
such as a little exercise at the guillotine, and a short 
sail in a drowning boat, where ladies are concerned, 
yet I have always observed, that when money is 
concerned, they are very apt, clownish as it is, to 
help themselves first. He put him off, the first time, 
with the old story of the pure morals of his nation, 
but it is not to be presumed that Randolph would be 
fobbed off so. Besides, 1 think the Citizen, with all 
that impudence for which his nation is so remarkable, 
and of which he was the fit representative, would 
not think of passing the same stale trick twice upon 
our worthy secretary." 

Mr. Ames, on account of his feeble health, was 



LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 8t 

not able to take his seat in congress till the 9th of 
February. Till then there was a very frequent cor- 
respondence between him and Mr. Smith, who kept 
him informed of the proceedings at the seat of go- 
. vernment. This ^correspondence, with the exception 
"of three or four letters from Mr. Ames, and two or 
three fragments from Mr. Smith, I have not been able 
to find. 

From the Hon. Fisher Ames, Dedham, January 
18, 1796. " My dear friend: You have deserved 
well of the country for writing so punctually, and so 
fully, so wittily, and so wisely. I am glad you 
abstain from scandal, because you know I hate it. 
Yet abuse Mr. Thacher, if you please, for his not 
writing to me, and I shall esteem the favor in pro- 
portion to your known repugnance to the task. I 
think spiritedly, and almost resolve to go on to Phi- 
ladelphia. Should this snow last, I am half resolved 
to jingle my bells as far as Springfield, within a 
week. That, however, is a crude purpose, ripening 
in my brain. To-morrow I go to my loyal town of 
Boston, in my covered sleigh, by way of experiment 
of my strength, which will prove just nothing, as it 
is no exercise. More of this, and more decidedly, 
in my next. I am, I believe, unfit for any fatigue, or 
for business. I go with a fixed design to be useless. 
Does that surprise you ? 

" 1 have read two Camilluses, on the constitution- 
ality of the treaty ; so much answer to so little 
weight of objection, is odds. He holds up the a3gis 
against a wooden sword. Jove's eagle holds his bolts 
in his talons and hurls them, not at the Titans, but at 



88 LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH, 

sparrows and mice. I despise those objections, in 
which blockheads only are sincere. 

" Our governor ^ has not yet delivered his most de- 
mocratic speech, although it is the second week of the 
court sitting. To-morrow wisdom opens her mouth. 
It is said he has twice or thrice new-modelled his 
preachment, as he was led by hopes and fears of the 
temper of the members, finding no anti-treaty stuff 
would be well received, it is to be supposed. So says 
rumor. Your despatches are referred to a committee 
of the whole, and if any part shall be found to de- 
mand a more detailed answer, it shall be sent by the 
next post. Whether you did play the fool or not, 
when the flag was delivered, you seem to have done 
it. Such parade to check enthusiasm! Oh stuff! 
Is it necessary to show zeal for the power of 
France, to evince regard for liberty ? You remark, 
justly, ' Reason is a slim underpinning for govern- 
ment.' But our reason is no less wild than our 
passions. Our very wise folks think a man false to 
his own country, if he is not a partisan of some fo- 
reign nation. Your friend, F. A." 

From the same : Springfield, Jan. 29, 1796, Fri- 
day. " I pray you look out lodgings, such as will suit 
my invalid condition. If I might choose, I would 
prefer a place where only you and I could be re- 
ceived ; that is not material. How would it agree 
with your taste to have our two beds in one chamber, 
where a fire might be, every evening, if desired ; and 
the other a drawing-room ? This thought has not lain 

1 Samuel Adams. 



LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 89 

long ripening, and may be met by your objections ; 
it shall not be allowed to contend against them. 
Mrs. Ames relies upon your friendship to keep the 
talking bullies off, whose noise and perseverance would 
waste my strength as well as patience. My organs 
are sound, but I am yet weak, and five minutes un- 
due exertion will overthrow me for a whole day. 
This makes it absolutely necessary to secure a place 
of repose, and to persist in a plan of great careful- 
ness and abstemiousness. I shall hire my speeches 
made and delivered. Bradley went home, in 1794, re- 
porting through the country that the printed speeches 
were known to be made by Englishmen, who had 
come over to work in that way, some at five guineas 
a speech, some as high as ten. But a speech could 
be bespoke and printed, at almost any price." 

From the same. '' Mamaronuk, at Mrs. Horton's, 
twenty-seven miles east from New York, Feb. 3, 
1796, Wednesday morning. My dear friend: Here 
I am, per ' varios casus,' through thick and thin ; 
' jactatus et terris ; ' the sleigh often on bare ground ; 
vi superum, and then there was great wear and tear 
of horse-flesh ; tanta^ne animis, irae, such is my pat- 
riotic zeal to be useless in congress. I give you a 
translation to save you trouble ; and I have the most 
intimate persuasion that it is as near the original as 
the copies of Mr. Fauchet's despatches, No. 3 and 6. 
I left Springfield Saturday morning, and came on to 
Hartford, very sick all the way. But I assure you 
solemnly, I survived it, and was well the next morn- 
ing. Lodged at New Haven Sunday night, at Nor- 
walk Monday night. The snow grew thin at New 



90 LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 

Haven, and was nearly gone in tlie cart-way at Stam- 
ford. There I procured a coachee from a Mr. Jarvis, 
who was very obliging, and no democrat, his name 
notwithstanding. Came on wheels to this place, and 
slept ; waked, and found a snow-storm pelting the 
windows. It still continues, and T have sent back 
the coachee sixteen miles to Mr. Jarvis, and wait for 
the sleigh. Fate, perliaps, ordains that it will thaw 
by the time it comes back ; so much uncertainty is 
there, in all the plans of man ! The novelty of this 
grave reflection will recommend it to you. To- 
morrow expect to hear the bells ring, and the light- 
horse blow their trumpets on my reaching New York. 
If Gov. Jay will not do that for me, let him get his 
treaty defended by Camillus and such understrap- 
pers. I intend to pass two days there, and three 
more will, I trust, set me down in Philadelphia. Do 
not let me go down to the pit of the Indian Queen. It 
is Hades, and Tartarus, and Periphlegethon, Cocytus, 
and Styx, where it would be a pity to bring all the 
piety and learning that he must have, who knows the 
aforesaid infernal names. Pray leave word at the said 
Queen, or, if need be, at any other Queen's, where 
I may unpack my weary household gods. I am the 
better for the journey, although I have at least three 
times been so ill as to come near fainting. My 
country's good alone could draw a man so sick from 
home — saving that I am not sick, and shall do my 
country no good. That, however, is not allowed by 
counsel to impair the obligation to pay me six dollars 
per day. Forbearing to be mischievous, is said 
to be a valid consideration. I shall not prove a trou- 



LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 91 

blcsomc lodgcT, nor call for little messes ; a slice of 
dry bread at noon, wine-whey frequently at bed-tirne, 
will be all the addenda to the common attendance. 
Your offer to lodge with me in the same house is 
really very friendly, as you might well expect to find 
me both stupid and hyp'd. If I should i)rove other- 
wise and better, it will be a just reward for your 
generous friendship. Yours." 

To Mr. Ames, 6th February, 1796. "You say 
you will play orator Mum, in congress. You shall be 
permitted to play no other part by me, because it will 
injure your health ; and by my friend Harper, be- 
cause he talks all the time himself; by the jacobins, 
because they never liked your speaking ; and by all 
your friends, because tfiey wish you ' to live to speak 
another day ; ' and, I may add, because there will be 
no subject worthy of your talents. ' Nee deus inter- 
sit nisi vindice nodus.' I ain't sure I have the Latin 
right. The supreme court are in session, and I am, 
you know, fond of attending, to learn wisdom. You 
will therefore be so good as to excuse this very hasty 
scrawl." 

To Samuel Smith, 5th March, 1796. " Mr. Ells- 
worth, a senator from Connecticut, is appointed chief 
justice of the United States, and will accept. He is 
a good man, and a very able one ; a man with whom 
I am very well acquainted, and greatly esteem. The 
treaty is laid before our house, and probably will be 
discussed in a ^gw days. The event cannot be con- 
jectured. We have a great many changeable ani- 
mals ; one never knows where to find them. I am 
very sanguine, however, that all will be well." 



9^ LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 

To tlie same, 19th March. "We are engaged in 
the debate mentioned in my last, as to the powers of 
the house of representatives, in making treaties. Part 
of the debates are in the paper enclosed. I will send 
you, by the next post, my observations on the ques- 
tion, as delivered in the house on the 16th. They 
appear in to-day's paper. I have taken a more active 
part in business than formerly, and have been as suc- 
cessful as I had any reason to expect." 

To the same, 25th March. " We have had a de- 
bate of three weeks, nearly, on the question to call on 
the president for the papers relative to the treaty with 
Great Britain. The call is made under an idea that 
the house of representatives have a right to judge of 
the merits of the treaty, and, if they do not like it, 
reject it. Under this idea, we opposed the motion. 
Yesterday the question was decided — sixty-two for 
calling on the president for the papers, and thirty- 
seven against it. I have on this occasion, as on 
some others this session, taken the liberty to give my 
sentiments. They are published, but I have not a 
copy on hand. I shall send you a newspaper con- 
taining them, when I can procure one. In some of 
the papers they are not yet published. Notwithstand- 
ing the house determine they have a right to inquire 
into the merits of the treaty, I yet persuade myself 
they will (that is, a majority will,) agree to make the 
necessary provision to carry the treaty into effect." 

To the same, 31st March, 1796. " We have re- 
ceived an answer from the president of the United 
States, to our request of the 24th March, calling on 
him for his instructions to the minister who negoti- 



LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 93 

ated the treaty with Great Britain, and the corres- 
pondence and papers relative thereto. He refuses to 
send the papers. You can scarcely conceive the sat- 
isfaction we derive from this determination of the 
president. He enters somewhat at large into the 
subject, and refers to the proceedings of the conven- 
tion who framed the constitution. This is under- 
stood as a severe criticism on the conduct of Mr. 
Madison and Mr. Baldwin, who were both members 
of that convention, and who must have known that no- 
thing was further from the intentions of the members 
of that convention, than to give the house of repre- 
sentatives the power in relation to treaties, which a 
majority of that body now claim. Madison's conduct 
is utterly irreconcilable with an ingenuous and honest 
mind ; and I think his duplicity and insincerity, on 
this occasion, have given a wound to his character, 
(I mean his political character,) which no time can 
heal. The president must be dissatisfied with him. 
The matter is now before the dread tribunal of the 
public, and I believe they will determine right. The 
weather begins to grow warm, and, of course, very 
uncomfortable. I am afraid we shall have much in- 
ternal heat as well as external. The Lord have 
mercy on us ! The Virginians threaten us, that, as 
the president would not give the papers, they will 
make no provision for executing the treaty. They 
are capable of almost anything, and I am afraid that 
a difference between the two houses will prolong the 
session. The senate will never consent to rise till 
provision is made to execute all the treaties. The 
president has this day nominated the commissioners 
under the treaty." 



94 LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 

From the Hon. Cliristoplier Gore, V2ih April, 
17JX>. '' My clear sir : I am much obliged by your 
letter of the 2cl instant. Ames's health is precious 
to his friends, and I have no doubt is much in- 
creased by your atlection and attention. If he could 
cease to think, he would certainly be a well man. 
The action of his mind stops that of his body. 
Your house and the president seem to be at war. 
I know of no neutrals in this contest. The law of 
our nation admits of none. The public is much in- 
debted to you and your friends, for placing this ques- 
tion, so as to leave no loopholes for even knaves and 
hypocrites to creep out. They must assume the 
right of opposing the constitution, or tread back the 
false steps they have taken. They are not ingenuous 
enough for the latter, and I hope they have not im- 
pudence enough for the former. In expectation of 
taking you by the hand shortly, I remain, my dear 
sir, your aftectionate friend, C. G." 

To Samuel Smith, 2Sth April, 179G. " The treaty 
is still on the anvil, but we expect the question this 
day, and it is doubtful which way. I am more en- 
couraged this morning than at any former period, 
that we shall prevail on the first vote. At all events 
the division will be pretty equal, and we shall cer- 
taiidy carry it in time. The sovereign people ap- 
pear to be very much alarmed. An express arrived 
yesterday from Boston, in sixty-two hours, with a 
petition signed by upwards of eleven hundred mer- 
chants, traders, and citizens. These things have their 
ellects on weak minds, of which, it must be con- 
fessed, a part of our house is composed. I had 



LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 95 

intended to have spoken on this question, and was 
prepared some days ago, but not having an opportu- 
nity then, if the question is taken to-day, beheve I 
shall give a silent vote. Tfiere have been many 
speeches made, some of which might as well have 
been omitted. My mind has been a little agitated 
lately, by a proposal to go into the treasury depart- 
ment, as comptroller, at a salary of two thousand six 
hundred and fifty dollars per annum. When I say a 
proposal, I mean that the thing has been mentioned 
to me, as what might be obtained. Upon the 
whole, I rather viewed it as less advantageous than 
my prospects, considering that one must reside in 
Philadelphia, and live at great expense, and declined 
being a candidate. The office in that department is 
next to the secretary of the treasury, and is the office 
from which the present secretary came. It is the 
head of the accounting department, and requires 
mercantile and legal knowledge. It would be a new 
path to me, and would derange all my views in life. 
I have been very happy this winter, in enjoying the 
esteem and confidence of those whose good opinion 
is worth regarding, and I am sure have many friends 
here." 

To the same, 29th April. " We have just taken 
the question on the resolution to appropriate the money 
necessary to carry the British treaty into eflfect, in 
committee of the whole ; the members rising in the 
affirmative forty-nine, the same number in the nega- 
tive. Muhlenberg, the chairman, wonderful to re- 
late, decided in our favor ! He has been a violent 
anti, but the sovereign people of Philadelphia happen 



96 LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 

at this time to be on the right side, a thing which I 
presume he had no right to expect. It is certainly 
the first time. 

" To-morrow w^e expect the question by ays and 
noes in the house. The event is yet doubtful. 
You perceive that we have been, I may say still 
are, on the edge of a precipice, ready to take a leap 
into the abyss of confusion. If we could persuade 
our brethren of Virginia and North Carolina to take 
this leap, and they are, in truth, fit for nothing 
else, our government might jog on for some time. 
God knows how this ship of ours will sail, when 
the present pilot quits the helm. If we may 
judge, from present appearances, she will inevitably 
founder. I am afraid that we are mistaken, when 
we place so much reliance on the wisdom of our citi- 
zens, to supply the place of power in the government. 
Has not every citizen good sense enough to know that 
it is his duty, and certainly it is his interest, to be 
temperate, sober, and virtuous ? And yet how few 
are there of this character ! We have had a thou- 
sand escapes, miraculous escapes, since the formation 
of the present government. We have but just es- 
caped the vortex of European politics, and, on this 
occasion, we have been within an ace of tarnishing 
the national character and honor — a stain w^hicli all 
the water in the ocean could never wash out. The 
present crisis affords the most unequivocal proof that 
our prejudices are an overmatch for our judgment, 
our interest, and even our sense of national honor 
and character. 

" My friend Ames, on Thursday, (April 28,) gave 



LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 97 

US the most eloquent speech I ever heard. The im- 
pression was great ; probably much increased by the 
bodily weakness of the speaker. His introduction 
was beautiful, and his conclusion divine ! His words, 
like the notes of the dying swan, were sweet and 
melodious. I tell him that he ought to have died in 
the fifth act ; that he never will have an occasion so 
glorious ; having lost this, he will now be obliged to 
make his exit like other men. If he had taken my 
advice, he would have outdone Lord Chatham. I am 
tired of this cursed treaty ; it ruins my temper and 
spirits." 

In another letter Mr. Smith says : " I send you my 
friend Ames's speech. He was much indisposed, 
and has been so for a year past, and has taken little 
active part in business. He spoke without premedi- 
tation, and without having intended to speak at all. 
The effect produced was very great." " When Mr. 
Ames rose to speak," Mr. Smith used to say, " he was 
so feeble as to be hardly able to stand, and supported 
himself by leaning upon his desk. As from the first 
faint tones he rose to the impassioned outpourings of 
high sentiment and patriotic zeal, his physical ener- 
gies increased, till the powers of his body seemed 
equal to those of his mind. At the close he sunk 
down, weak and exhausted ; ' his mind agitated like 
the ocean after a storm, and his nerves like the 
shrouds of a ship torn by the tempest.' " The speech, 
I am told, was written out from memory by Mr. Dex- 
ter and Mr. Smith, and to their labors, corrected by 
Mr. Ames, we are indebted for the copy we now 
have, greatly inferior, Mr. Smith always said, to the 
9 



i)."^ I.IKK OK JllXJK SMITH. 

spooch tliat was tl(^li\cMtnl, l>iil with (Mumi^Ii ot' i(s 
orimual Uvc aiul lofty cMitluisiasin. to be still itH'itod 
and roail with tooim^s proiliu'inl l>\ no otIuM" Amori- 
can s[HHH'h ot" tho last ooiiturv, i>\0(^|>t two or throe 
bol'oro tho ro\ohition. 

To Sainuol Smith. 'J.^th April. '• I tMu-loso you a 
ooj>v of a lotttM' writtoii l>v a si>n ot' tho Manjuis Ka- 
I'aNiMto. An iiu|iurv was scM on loot h\ \.. l/iviiii;- 
ston, tho patriot, with a viow, as it was whisporod, to 
(iisizraoo tho prosidoiit. It was kiunvn thai tlu^ yoiiiii;- 
man was in this country, and tho attaohnuMit ot' this 
country to his I'athor was woll known. It was oir- 
oulatod, amoui^' thoso ilovils. that tho pri^siilont took 
no notice ot' tho lad, bocaust^ \\c loved tlu^ l^ritish 
and hatod tho I'ronch.' 'VUc in(|uiry has [)rovod the 
falsehood of thoso insimiations ; and tho i^resitlont lias 
on this occasion, as o\\ every other, hccn I'ound tho 
i^ood as well as tho i.\reat man. 'The letter o\' tho 
vouuii Lafayette is well written, and does hoiu>r to a 
youth of tifteen." — " T. S. May "2. We have at 
lenuth taken the (juestion on approi>riatinj^ I'or tho 
British treaty in the house, and have had a com|>Uio 
victory. AVe carried it lift y-one, besides the speaker, 
to t'orty-eii^ht. 'J'hey endeavored to obtain a sen- 
tence of condemnation apiinst the treaty, but could 
not obtain it. Wo expect the session will close in 
three or four weeks. They will probably attempt 
some other mischief, thoui^h Goil knows what it will 
be ; but I trust they will be disappointed in all their 

• Any one wlio roads Washington's lottors to Mr. Cabot and otliors, 
rospoolins: tl^o young Ijafayotto (soo Sparlvs's Washington,) will wonder 
how so imimdont a oalmniiy could liavo boon got np. 



I.IJ K OF JCIK/K '-vifn/. I>9 

rri;jr:liirmtior)H. 'I'li^; Hovorcijifj [>f;Ofj|f; ;j.r^; witfi uh ; 
;j.fif] vvf; ur<: told UKit in Virginia thoy arc on the ri!_4)t 
m<\<'., iui<\ t.h;).t. [>ot,ilion.s will flow in from tiiat. qunrfor 
this wcr;k." 

To tjio s?jrno. 1 Olh May. '• 1 Jjrn anxiouH to ho 
with you ; a s(;HHion of" fivf; or six rnorjtliH fjf;cornOH 
vf;ry todiouH. arjd o.spr^r^ially sucli an ono ;js tfiin, 
whif:}j Jigitatc'H fill tfjf; [jassiorjH of tlio liurnnrj rrjirjd. 
\ do not. f>r;rK;vr; t.fuit, tlif- likf; will (i\'<',r liaj^j^on again, 
fjiood rrjori will soon f>f;corno tired of a goverrirnont 
wliieli refjuire-s r:orjst?jnt, jiropping anrJ sliorjfjg ij[). 
TIjo actjon of tfio soveroign f>f;0[>lo on tiie rnefnbers 
of our fiouHO carriofJ tjjo IJritisli treaty. We earjfjot 
exjjeet. t.hrit, the j>eo[jle will always he wiser t.harj tfje 
government; on this occasion they have heen so. 
We are informed that tfio peoj>le at tfic nortfiward, 
rouserl li.'.e a giant refreslied with wine; are fierce for 
tfjc government." 

i'larly m Muy Mr. Smith, in corrjp.'i.ny v\it}i fjin 
frierifl. Mr. Ames, who mnde the journey for the 
hcrjcfit of his fiealtfi, visited at iietfilehem tfjc Society 
of United iirothren. In a very lively, [>leasarjt letter, 
f^iving an account of his visit, to liis hrother, jjfter de- 
Bcrihing tfjc otfier f>artH of tfie estahlishment, fie adds : 
" On Sunday we were conrluctcd hy the hisfiop to 
tfic cfiapel, Jirjd were greatly edified fjy a very long 
ortiiodox sermon in the (if;rman language. Tfjc 
music we couKi understand without an interpreter. 
'J'hcy had a pretty band — an organ, violins, fjauthoy, 
clarinet, A:c., and [clayed well. The 8<;erje shifted. 
At twelve o'clock we fiad a sermon in English. But 
the hcBt of it was the audience — seventy or eighty 



100 LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 

charming, divine little girls, belonging to the board- 
ing school, from Philadelphia, New York, Baltimore, 
&c., from nine to fifteen, dressed in uniform, and 
many of them very handsome. You know my pas- 
sion for these blossoms of innocence and beauty. By 
the appearance of the company, I thought myself in 
heaven. I wa^ in love with a dozen of them succes- 
sively, before the exercises were ended. We visited 
their chambers. They played on the piano-forte, and 
sung to us. This, you may say, finished what their 
eyes began, and did my business completely. 1 left 
them with a heavy heart, or to speak more properly, 
with no heart at all, — vowing that I would and will 
be married, and with the assistance of the Deity who 
presides over matrimony, have at least a dozen sweet 
little girls of my own. 

" The discipline of manners and morals which per- 
vades this society, extends to the young ladies of the 
boarding-school. I never saw so much good order 
and propriety of behavior in the same number of per- 
sons of any age or sex. Do not understand me as 
approving all the customs of these good people. That 
is an abominable one, which interposes a barrier be- 
tween the sexes, and cuts off all intercourse. I 
have myseli derived so much pleasure, and (if you 
will allow me) I will add, improvement in morals, 
from the society of the ' last and best of all God's 
works,' that 1 can't endure the thought of having the 
dear creatures shut up and secluded from the world. 
Don't laugh, but look grave, and I will assure you 
that in all my castles of happiness, (and I build a 
great many,) one of this charming sex makes a con- 



LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 101 

s[)icuous figure. I will not inliabit the finest castle 
that ever my own innagination built, (and I can beat 
Inigo Jones, and every other architect that ever lived, 
in the castle building way,) unless she will consent 
to be the mistress of it. 

" I ought not to omit a circumstance which shows 
the disposition of these good people to keep the sexes 
apart. In the place where their dead are deposited, 
they have drawn a line, and are extremely careful 
not to mingle the bodies of the sexes. I ridiculed 
this extreme caution in conversing with friend Tho- 
mas, and told him that as their people were so very 
chaste while living, I thought they might be safely 
trusted when dead. lie seemed to think that this 
was one of the cases in which too much caution 
could not be used. At the most, it was justifiable 
on the principles of uniformity. 

" Will you be so good as to excuse this long epistle ? 
I could not resist the desire of giving you some ac- 
count of a visit which has afforded me so much plea- 
sure. I am sensible that my picture falls very short 
of the things I have attempted to describe, and if 
you should happen to fall asleep before you get 
through, I can't help it. Mr. King is this day ap- 
pointed minister plenipotentiary to the court of Lon- 
don, in the room of Mr. Pinckney, who returns to this 
country. I have much pleasure in this appointment, 
because I esteem the man, and am sure he will do 
honor to our country. I regret that he leaves the 
senate. I send you Ames's speech ; it is much ap- 
plauded, and thought to be the most popular that 
ever was delivered in this country. The 25th is the 
9* 



lO-J i.iKK ov .n nt;r smith. 

(lav of ailjouiiumMit. I am iiirliiuul to l>i^lii^vt> it will 
bo rurtluM- }>iotiaott^l. say to tho "U^th. Adion. my 
doar tViiMul." 

A wish oxprosstnl in this hMtor was iu\nor its I'ullil- 
mont. than th(^ wiitrr at th(^ tinu^ ooulil \\i\\c sup- 
posod. 'VUv ili\iiu^ woman. monti(MU\l in a lottia- 1(^ 
Mr. FKMi"h(M-. noarlv a yiwr ami a lialf InMoro. was 
INliss I'li/.a Koss. ol a n^sptHMalilo t'anuh in l^ladtMis- 
binii, Maivland. who was thon boaidini; with lior siok 
inothor in tho samo IionsiM\ith Mr. Smith. UobiH-amo 
oxooodiniih inton^sttul in Ucv. ami was painoil to lt\nn 
that slio was aliwuly onua^cnl. Tho foliowinj^ iVai;- 
nionts, containing' tht^ onlv attempts at potMry that I 
havo iomul anions his writings, may show somiMhini;" 
ol' iiis tot^lin^is. 

•' To Aituui, Par.uliso was ijivon. 
IMooniini: \vitl\ all that ohanns llio sonso : 
Oi iVnits — nno only was rorbiditou. 
Aiivl lUat oooasioiuni soiv i-oinphiiiits. 

How nujoh sovoror is my I'alo 

Tl\an his ! unjust ! how oouKt hr griovo .• 

Hr was donioii [\w juooious tVuil, 

lUit 1. alas! iiopri\i\i of l\vo. 

Nay n\i^ro, si'voivr si ill my oaso, 

A douMo i>aii», wilhoiit alloy ; 

Tlu- iVuil that I 'in torlud to lasto. 

Anothor tVooly n\ay onjoy. " J. S. 

DooiMiiluM- 17. 170.J. 

To Doha. 0;M Dooombor, \19\. "It woiiKl bo 
atVootation in my oliarmin^ liiil to prottMul that sho 
(lid not undoistand what wonld havo boon my wish, 
ill case 1 had darod to express it, in tho eonversution 



LIFK OF ./r.nr.i; svinif. 103 

at, thf; U-n-tnhlo. Mrs. \l. rfiosf; wealth. My wish 
(:<iin\)r(-\icAi(\H ovcrytfiin^. Ih it. wroii^, Delia, to wisli 
for what we never eari fK>Hsr;ss ? If it, is, I am guilty ; 
chide me likr; a .sister. I fiave always told you that 
you wouiri fiufi rrif; a very f>ad hrothf;r. Tfifjre i.s a 
diflererice f>f;tween hof^es and wisfies. Hopes I fiavc 
none. Cfiide me too, for tfie fV>llowing lines. 'J'hey 
liavf^ no fireten.sion to f)Of:tir:ai merit. 'V\\(^y are al- 
most an imf)rr>m|>tii. 'J'hey have in short notfiin^^ to 
rcjcomme-nd tfiem, except that they come from a fieart 
tr>o rnueh Delia's to he anythin;/ but trutfj and sin- 
cerity. 

rUK WISif, OK I'KTITION. 

" if .lovr; should (•A)H(\(:H(-(;u(l to grant 
What /if; coiilfJ Hparc, and / most want, 
Think you I'd ask for Wf;alth or farno, 
The worhl's applaus'j, a h*;ro'.s narn*,-, 
f)r, what i.H still to \,<: prfR-rrcd 
IJy virtuous rnirids, with wisdom stor'd, 
Some frionrls to cheer in ev'ry troul>le, 
My grief's to halve, my joys to douhle, 
A troop of friends to gild my days 
With pleasure, happiness and ease? 
One ning'/.f: hoon I 'd ask great Jove : 
Jndiru: rny IMia''n hcarl l,o love, ; 
All rny amhilion, wealth and fame, 
Are eenter'd in her charming name ; 
My wishes then are gratified ; 
To me wfifil is the world heftidc ? 
He who has iJelia 's rich to excess ; 
The world wlien taken from his store, 
Can never make his wealth the less, 
When added — still fie has no more. 

Tuesday evening, December ^:{, 1704. J. S. 

Tficsc and other expressions of yet more ardent 
admiration, devotcdrioss and affection, such as might 



104 LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 

overwhelm with confusion any but a lady educated 
in the school of Sir Charles Grandison and Lady 
Harriet, were answered firmly, but always with deli- 
cacy and tenderness. The correspondence, as between 
brother and sister, was kept up through the winter by 
him with the most passionate zeal ; but on his re- 
turn to New Ham})shire gradually died out. In the 
mean time she had returned to Bladensburg, and 
either through her lover's unworthiness or a change 
in her own aflections, found herself freed from her 
former engagement. About the middle of May, Miss 
Ross came to Philadelphia, and in a few days wrote 
to Mr. Smith a note, in which, after speaking of her 
mother's feeble health, she says, " My sister will leave 
me in a day or two ; I have very few acquaintances, 
and this is the time when the company of a friend 
would be most agreeable. In you I expect that 
friend. I read over your letters in which you pro- 
mise me your esteem forever. I will not, cannot, for 
a moment, think I have lost it, when to retain my 
own has cost me so much unhappiness." They met, 
and understood each other. It is not worth the while 
to be more particular, or to quote more largely 
from letters written with reference to the most 
delicate and sacred of human relations. Mr. Smith, 
near the close of his life, had his correspondence 
with her bound in a volume, which he thus very justly 
described : '' These letters show real fervor and at- 
tachment, and marks both of strong affection and 
passion ; but they are little suited to the general eye. 
It is the tendency of all strong feeling, from dwelling 
constantly on the same idea, to be monotonous ; and 



LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 105 

those often-repeated vows and verbal endearments, 
which make the charm of true love-letters to the par- 
ties concerned, make them cloying to others." 

At the close of the session, Mr. Ames proposed to 
Mr. Smith to join him in an excursion to Virginia, 
but he felt obliged to decline the proposal and re- 
turn home. He arrived at Amherst, New Hamp- 
shire, the lUh of June, and, on the following Wed- 
nesday, " the honorable judges of the court of 
common pleas, then sitting in this town, the gentle- 
men of the bar, the grand jury, and a number of 
respectable citizens of this and the neighboring towns, 
met at the hall of Dr. Samuel Curtis, and presented 
the following address : ' ^ It is with singular pleasure 
we congratulate you on your return from our na- 
tional councils. Language can hardly express the 
satisfaction we feel in the part you have taken. 
When our peace, happiness and prosperity were at 
hazard ; when our national honor was tottering, and 
in immediate danger of being sacrificed ; when dis- 
cord, anarchy, and war, with all their horrors, were 
entering upon the peaceful borders of America, — 
your patriotic exertions were not wanting to rescue 
her from a situation so humiliating, so ruinous, so 
distressing. Accept, sir, our most cordial thanks. 
Long may you participate in that happiness, so hon- 
orably and substantially secured to your fellow-cit- 
izens.' " 

To this address he replied in a few words, express- 
ing his gratification that the course which his own 

1 Village Messenger, (Amherst,) June 21, 1796. 



10(> \.\VV. OV .11 PUV: SMITH. 

jiuiiiniont and conscionoo luui ivoominoiulod shoiiKi 
moot tho approbation ot" his tVioiuls. " Hilarity," 
tlio aooonnt continues. " with order, oniinontly dis- 
tinguished the evenina-. and the whole concluded 
with the most pertect harmony and satisfaction. " 

Mr. Smith's account ot' this matter is liivcn in a 
letter to Miss Ross, dated '2(Mh .Inly. HiHi. '* Ycs- 
tenlav I visited some ot' my friends in a neidiborini: 
town, and received many compliments for my politi- 
cal conduct the last session. I omitted. I believe, in 
mv t'ormer letters to tell you that on my arrival at 
Amherst, (not far I'lom where I live.) a t'arce oi tho 
same kind was acted in public by the court, the bar, 
aiid some o( the principal inhabitants of the county, 
in ^^hich your friend played harlequin. If I could 
have t'ound any window to jump out at. I believe I 
should have ventured. I am but an inditVorent actor 
at the best : was not t'ond oi the play, and have no 
ambition to play the principal part. I don't pretend 
to be inditVerent to public opinion, lie nuist be a 
bad man, who does not wish for the praises of the 
i;ood : but this I can say with the strictest truth, 
that I should prefer an address from my Kli/.a, ap- 
provim; oi me in my private character, to one t'rom 
the whole state of New Hampshire, approvini;- my 
political conduct. I can be happy without the one ; 
I should be miserable without the other. I'li/.a. I am 
tired of political life, and wish to quit it." 

The allusion in the newspaper account to the 
order autl harmou} oi' the meetiui; was not, perhaps, 
so unnecessary as one mii;ht su[>pose What follows 
was written from the same place, in a private letter 



i/ifp: of jrjr>r;i: smith. ]()7 

lo Mr. Srnitfi, ]>y a prominorit l.iwycjr, tliroc months 
before; and, after making all the allowances we can 
for humor and imagiruition, it certainly leaves beliind 
an imf)re.s.sion, anything but Aivorable to the charac- 
ter of the bar for temperance. " I will write about 
the court and bar ; and firstly of the court. Judge 

wore a new wig, alias a scratch, wfiich was, 

upon the whoK;, tolerably ridiculous, especially as it 
was fr('f|uently made to change its f)Osition, to our no 
small amusement. As to the rest, I will say no- 
thinf!;. Gordon had the bar to dine with him on 
Thursdfiy, and it fiai)f)ened tfiat I liad previojjsly 
asked tlie judges to dine with me, and therefore 
missed of mucfi pleasure as well as wine, that I 
should have enjoyed at his house. lie endeavored 
to get all his brethren drunk, and, it not being a very 
difficult undertaking, he succeeded very well with 
respect to them and himself too. About half-past 
three in came the whole fraternity, with Judge D. 
at their head, who was the soberest man among 
them, (wliat think you of the others ?) ready to give 
the fraternal hug even to old K. himself. D. gof^- 
gled to the court. A. and S. were silent for the 
best of reasons; they could not speak. C. and W. 
quarrelled, and threatened to fight. Gordon laughed 
at everything and everybody. B. and S. D. Jr., 
argued a case, to the great satisfaction of themselves. 
Clagett fell asleep, and V>iin Champney made poetry. 
N. G. stole a few writs, and Thompson made u[) his 
large bills of costs. Old K. broke all his deputy- 
sheriflfs, and took care of the jury himself, to save the 



108 LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 

The summer and autumn of 1796 were spent by 
Mr. Smith, as he had before spent the intervals be- 
tween the sessions of congress, attending the Hills- 
borough courts, and making his home at his father's, 
where he lived in the most simple manner, and at 
very small expense. The great object of interest at 
Philadelphia during the session of 1796 and 1797, 
was the retirement of Washington, and the election 
of his successor. Some litde idea of what engaged 
Mr. Smith's thoughts, may be gained from the fol- 
lowing extracts. 

To Samuel Smith, 4th December, 1796. " I ar- 
rived here two days ago, in very good health. The 
weather was very cold, but, contrary to my usual 
experience, I suflered little on that account. As to 
lodgings, I am not so happy. My old friend Ames 
lives with a gentleman in this city as a guest, not as 
a boarder ; consequently I shall be deprived of his 
society as an inmate, and I have found him the most 
agreeable companion. I have just received a letter 
from my Dulcinea, and I am all impatience to visit 
her. I think I shall set out some time the latter end 
of this week. All the talk of this city is about 
Citizen Adet, and the election of president. These 
subjects are indeed connected, as nothing can be 
more evident than that our sister, the French repub- 
lic, interests herself very much in the question. She 
wishes we may have a good one, fears our discretion 
or capacity to make a suitable choice, and kindly 
uses every effort, that Mr. Jefferson may be the man. 
I spent last evening with Mr. Adams ; he has been 
most scandalously vilified in the public papers, and 



LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 109 

though he is a philosopher, yet he has so much of 
the man about him, that I think he feels sore, and 
will be sorer still, if Jefferson reaches the goal before 
him. I think Adams's chance the best, still it is but 
a chance. We are anxious and distracted with ap- 
prehensions. I hope all will be well." 

To Miss E. Ross, 4th December, 1796. '' I left 
Boston 22d November, with my friend, Mr. Thacher, 
an odd mortal you have seen at Mrs. Ramsey's. On 
the road to Springfield, (one hundred miles,) fortune, 
to make amends for the badness of the weather, 
treated us with a succession of incidents, which made 
the journey extremely pleasant. At Springfield the 
scene shifted, but our good fortune still continued. 
Dr. Ames ' and Mr. Foster were my only company 
to New York. As we were in a close carriage, we 
suffered little from the unusual coldness of the season. 
I need not say the journey was amusing. The god- 
dess, as if determined to acquire a character for con- 
stancy and stability, increased our pleasures at the 
same time that she increased the number of our 
company from New York to Philadelphia. The 
journey, independent of the idea that every day 
brought me nearer to you, was exceedingly pleasant." 

To Samuel Smith, 7th December, 1796. " I en- 
close you the president's speech, delivered to-day in 
the house of representatives, to a very crowded 
audience. The idea, that we shall see his face no 
more in that place, threw a solemnity, and even sad- 
ness, into every countenance. He appeared to be 

* Fisher Ames, LL.D., and the Hon. Dwight Foster. 
10 



no LIFF. OF JUDGE SMITH. 

affected with it himself, and discovered an unusual 
degree of sensibility. For a few moments, faction, 
jacobinism, and French politics, seemed to hide their 
heads, and I believe I may venture to say, we all felt 
as Americans ought to feel." 

To Miss E. Ross, 7th Dec. 1796, Wednesday. 
" The weather is threatening, but I have determined 
to set out on Saturday. On Sunday I am promised 
to reach Baltimore. Monday evening I invite myself 
to drink tea with you. To-day we had the presi- 
dent's speech. The idea that ' we shall see his face 
no more' mingled itself with the business of the 
day, and threw a solemnity and sadness over the 
scene. Jacobinism, faction, and French politics 
were for a moment hushed ; and I am confident, 
while the speech was delivering, the whole house felt 
as Americans should feel, — all gratitude to Heaven 
for raising up this wonderful man for our deliverance, 
and grieved to see him about to retire from the helm. 
Excuse this political effusion. When we have no- 
thing else to say, I will talk politics with you at B. 
Till Monday eve, adieu ; may Heaven bless my Eliza 
with the accomplishment' of all her wishes." 

To Miss E. Ross. " What a blockhead is to be 

learning Italian when he ought to be learning English, 
as you well observe, or laboring to retrieve his affairs, 
and pay his honest creditors. This desire to get a 
smattering of a great many things, and nothing per- 
fect, is very ridiculous. I was pleased with an ob- 
servation of Mrs. Washington's, which was very 
severe, without any intention of being so on the part 
of the old lady. Mrs. S. was saying, that she had 



LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. Ill 

such a master, and such another, to teach her daugh- 
ter this language and that ; to play on various instru- 
ments, and, in short, you would suppose that she was 
to be complete mistress of the whole circle of sci- 
ence. Mrs. W. replied, that it had been her en- 
deavor to have Nelly taught but few things, so that 
she might stand the better chance to excel in any- 
thing ; that she thought it quite enough for a lady to 
play on one instrument, and that it was very seldom 
they played tolerably on any." 

To Samuel Smith, 28th Jan. 1797. ''Since I 
wrote you last, a melancholy event has taken place. 
The dwelling-house of Mr. Andrew Brown, printer 
of the Philadelphia Gazette, (in which was his print- 
ing-office,) was yesterday morning discovered to be 
on fire. Every exertion was made to save it, and the 
exertions so far succeeded, that the printing-office re- 
ceived no damage, and the dwelling-house but little. 
The calamity fell on the inhabitants. Mrs. B. and 
the three children were suflbcated, and expired im- 
mediately. Mr. B., in endeavoring to save them, 
was so dreadfully burnt, that he died this morning. 
Thus the whole family have fallen victims to the de- 
vouring element. What a sad reverse of fortune ! 
They had risen from want to a state of great afflu- 
ence, in a very few years ; and Mr. B. intended soon 
to leave off business. The number of accidents by 
fire are very great. It seems as if Heaven in wrath 
had doomed mankind to destruction, and the French 
in Europe, and the fire in this country, were the .in- 
struments of his vengeance. I feel a thing of this 
kind with unusual interest, considering how you are 



] 12 LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 

circumstanced. I have just heard that Judge Farrar 
has resigned his seat on the bench. How has this 
happened ? It will puzzle the governor and council 
to put in so good a man." 

To the same, 31st Jan. 1797. "I now inclose a 
copy of the president's message on French affairs, 
with the papers accompanying. When the remain- 
der of this interesting paper comes from the press, I 
will forward it. This publication will, I am confi- 
dent, have good effects. It will serve to place in the 
true point the conduct and views of the French 
government towards this country, and it must, I 
think, completely vindicate our government against 
the charges of M. Adet and his venal tools. It will 
promote American feelings, which are much needed, 
and increase real patriotism, which, after all, is 
rather a scarce virtue, and is generally, like true re- 
ligion, at the lowest ebb, when there is the most noise 
about it. Our Palinurus is about to quit the helm ; 
still I think he will be useful to us. He has left be- 
hind some excellent instructions, and a chart of the 
rocks and quicksands on our coasts. I hope we shall 
have the wisdom to profit from his experience, and, 
though the war in Europe will probably continue 
through this year, we shall steer our little bark safely 
through the storm of European war and European 
madmen. We shall be injured, but not destroyed." 

To Miss E. Ross, 6th Feb. 1797. '' I spent yester- 
day in a manner which I am sure my Eliza would 
approve. It was a delightful day, and I accepted an 
invitation from my friend Mr. Ames, to ride with 
Mr. Rundle and him. Mr. R. is polite enough to 



LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 113 

offer me his horses at any time, and I shall certainly 
avail myself of his very friendly offer. I dined with 
them enfamille. It was domestic and charming. In 
the afternoon and evening we had the greatest va- 
riety imaginable. We spent a few minutes with 
Dr. Priestley, and talked divinity ; with the vice- 
president and judges of the supreme court, and 
talked politics; drank tea with Mrs. Liston, and 
talked scandal and treason ; and the remainder of 
the evening at Mr. Wolcott's, and had a very friendly 
chit-chat, a la mode New England.^'' 

To the same, Feb. 8th, 1797, Wednesday, P. M. 
" I am just returned from the hall. We have had a 
splendid exhibition. The two houses assembled in 
the chamber of the house of representatives, to attend 
the opening and examining the votes for president 
and vice-president. The result has been long since 
known. Mr. Adams, as president of the senate, 
made the declaration that John Adams was chosen 
president, and Thomas Jefferson vice-president. 
There was a great concourse of people, and a very 
brilliant circle of ladies. Being near-sighted, I re- 
ceived no injury from the great display of female 
charms on the occasion, but came away with a heart 
just as whole as I went. The only thing remarkable 
in the ceremony of the day, and what we did not ex- 
pect, was the concluding scene, which consisted of a 
short prayer, a la mode New England, by Mr. 
Adams. We were struck with amazement, and some 
of your southern gentry prayed, who never prayed 
before." 

To Samuel Smith, 11th Feb. 1797. ''I write 
10* 



I I I l.tthl (»!)' .MIlMil!: bl\ll i ti 

tlireti liliMiti ii wr.lv In h., uiul ui^iilaily llinr- Cunt a u 

Mi'.rlv idceivb mjawtira, Thasa [arm luy |»iiiHi|..il 

Iia|>|.lin fatf. I rail Imnlly peiaiiiuli' luVhcH, I am 

Wlllllll i«MII Wl'i'Kd ul lllHlllMIMll\ . I llldliti \«MI Inl 
the gUQll wiwIlDa tiXplt<tititi»l lit \i>\\l lust luHtil I.M IHV 

hctppintititi. I liiivt) ii«i (luiiltl hul (luit I tiliall Im- hh 

Impp) (tb It ib pu.Shil>ll-> tiM Ihillt (n lin Willi Ull Ullllillllt^ 
wife, I 'till li.<nlii> liM.t mI IMuld.l. I|iIii<i , (lie. hiiKi 

eeeiiis l»»ii^, uiitl I iU* iu>t iinjny bu j^nml linulili ub at 
the btigiuniug ot tlu» ritistiion, \ afi* rilin it (»» ilin \>aut 
of exercise aiul free hving, My wiahes mt3 never to 
Htteut] another aebaiuii." 

To Mibfl K, Uoisa, Feb, '^'M, ♦• li i^ lu.w rl. vt^i 
oVlouk, anti I am juat retnrnetl fiMin ili*'. I..tll I'here 
were aaaeinhluil at Hieket'a amplnlhealie ahiuit live 
huMilred ladies ami a greater mnnher of i^'eiiilemen, 
Tin. Itulied were very elegantly ilretiseU. I iliouf^ht 
there waa more variety than J have before seen in the 
dresses. This is a proof tliat they have made Home 
priJf^ress in lablu, tl the tliesses are beeoming, and 
suit the peraon, eomplexion, tS^e, The president and 
Mrb. W. were in very good spirits, and, I am per- 
snatlfd, have out s|>ent so agreeable an tnening fur a 
Jong tiu^e, Kvery countenance bespoke pleasnm and 
appMibalion. ICven democrals l'orL;»>l for a nmiitent 
(lien eimnly, and seemed to join lieaiiily m (lie Irs- 
tivity of the tiay. My heart, I aaaure you, uiy love, 
waa in no danger lV»»m Iht^ roiibidllalion »»! beauty 
anil elegance, wliitli lit**- leiuido a* Itub (III tlub blmwy 
itage exhibited. I tltd nut (luuL 1 . Muld Iw. r>o uidil 
ferent to beauty. " 

To H, Hniilh, 'v»ad Feb. \1'M. ^' Vestenlay was 



lAtikl Ol' JDIMiK bMITIi. 115 

llu^ iiiiiMVcr.siiiy <»!' llie preyidenl'rt IhiIIi duy. li vvuw 
ceIt!hiuUi<l Willi miiirtiinl hIiovv. 'I'Ih, jimIiIk nl mum ol 
the ^K'ulewt iiiid Ih '«!. «il fiirii iH at.lhii^; willi a (ipli n- 
dor tlnj WdiKl ii(!V<;r vviUu;Hht^<l Inian'. 'J'Ik. IiiuIh^hI 
respect was paiil liim liy all claflHew. lium ihr pM hidrni, 
elect to the .scavenger in the HtreelH, vvilh a vmy U'.w 
exceptions of the pailitsana oi Fmnce uial anarchy. 
The evening exhihilion wan lailliant indeed. The 
largest number of well-chebsed peoph^ ai both sexes 
I ever saw, assembled at the ball ; every faoi wore 
ih<- ii|)|)(arance of joy, and, most of hII, ihut oj ihe 
pn^Mideiit hims(.'lf. He is throwing olf a load, vvjmh 
will, [ f( iir, prove; loo heavy (or his successor." 

A diiy or two befoio \\n'. rlo.-j- of ihe session, wilh- 
out waiting to witness the inauguration of the n(^w 
president, and the sublime spectacle of Washijigtori 
casting otK the cares of public life, Mr. Smitli set out 
for Maryland, where, on the 8th of Marcli, he was 
married to Miss Eliza Ross. Her father, Alexander 
Ross, a sensible, energetic man, Scotch by birth, 
had died before Mr. Bmith's acquaintance with the 
family, and her mother, Ariana Brice, from one of 
the best families in Maryland, was a woman of a rea- 
soning and pliilosophic turn of mind. Mrs. Smith is 
said to have been a remarkably [iretty young lady ; 
but her beauty was oi' that delicate |.;ind so easily 
lost l*y ill health, and tlie rearing of a laimly. Her 
manners w<^re graceful. The prudence and good 
sense, which her lover so trefjuenily spoke of iii his 
letters, as well as \it:t iiiijjehuK ui i<> Imn, iiud iill ihe 
duties of her home, conlinue'd imabaled to th(; end. 
They begati with warm mutual alh:;ctionSj and witii 



116 LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 

simple unambitious views, and found more than they 
had liopoil. Her ii;rcat ditlieuhy in housekeeping 
arose from the dilierence between tlie circumstances 
of her early education at the south, and her duties 
at the north. iSlie had been brought up in the 
midst of slavery, with the habits growing out of it ; 
and during the thirty years she remained in New 
England, without once visiting her former home, she 
could not so assimilate herself to tiie New England 
modes of thought and life, as to feel perfectly at 
ease. 

The following is from a letter written by ]\Ir. 
Smith to his brother, two days after his marriage : 
March 10th, 1797. '' I am set down to write, and 
can truly say I never in my life was so much puzzled 
about the manner. I want to tell you that I am 
married, and consequently a happy man. But as 
the subject is perfectly new to me, and happiness no 
great clarifier of the brain, I foresee that I shall ac- 
quit myself badly. What if we should suppose the 
information given, and I should content myself with 
mentioning only the time, place, Szc. Wednesday 
evening was the time, and, as our dear mother is cir- 
cumstanced, the iiimily and those immediately con- 
nected with them, were the oidy witnesses of the 
solemn act, which I consider as the most happy of 
mv life. I have every reason to be pleased with the 
behavior of my new friends and relations. I forgot 
to mention that three miles before I reached Bladens- 
burg, I had the misfortune to lose my trunk, with all 
my clothes, of the value of two hundred dollars. 
The fastening untied, and some very great knaves 



LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 117 

happening to live in tlie vicinity, picked it up before 
the stage-driver returned to look for it, which was in 
less than fifteen minutes. This is the conjecture. 
I have offered a reward for it, but have not as yet 
had any success, and begin to despair of recovering 
it. It has subjected me to much inconvenience, as 
well as a pretty heavy loss. I saved nothing but my 
travelling clothes. This loss could not have hap- 
pened at a more unseasonable time. Luckily I had 
no money in it, and unluckily, very little anywhere 
else." 

The accident ' occurring at such a time, was very 
severely felt. Among the articles lost was a pearl- 
colored coat, about which he had had a long corres- 
pondence with Miss Ross, who insisted upon it as 
essential to his wedding dress. He found great diffi- 
culty in procuring it, and asked whether, if obliged 
to appear in a more sombre dress, he might not 
make up for what was wanting, by simpering all the 
time during the ceremony. But the lady was too 
much in earnest to be put off so, and after diligent 



1 Those who are curious in such matters, may be interested to see 
what were the articles of a gentleman's travelling wardrobe, under such 
circumstances. " A light-colored broadcloth coat, with pearl liuttons. 
Breeches of the same cloth. Ditto black satin. Vest, swansdown, 
buff striped. Ditto, moleskin, chequer figure. Ditto, satin figured. 
Ditto, Marseilles, white. Ditto, muslinet figured. Under vest faced 
with red cassimere. Two ditto flannel. One pair of flannel drawers. 
One ditto cotton ditto. One pair black patent silk hose. One ditto 
white ditto. One ditto strip<'d ditto. 'J'en or a dozen white silk hose. 
Three pair of cotton iiose. Four pair of gauze ditto. A towel. Six 
shirts. Twelve neck handkerchiefs. Six pocket handkerchiefs, one of 
them a bandanna. A chintz dressing gown. A pair of silk gloves. 
Ditto, old kid ditto." 



118 LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 

search the coat was found, to furnish another iUus- 
tration of the vanity of human wishes. 

In a letter to his brother, dated 17th March, 1797, 
Mr. Smith says : " I saw General Washington, as he 
passed through this town, on his way to Mount Ver- 
non, two days ago, and spent a pleasant hour with 
him alone. He was undisguised in his sentiments of 
men and things, and, for the first time in my life, I 
conversed with perfect freedom with the greatest and 
best of men." 

A few weeks after this Mr. Smith visited Wash- 
ington at Mount Vernon. He arrived there late in 
the afternoon, and received a most cordial welcome 
from Washington and his lady, the latter, " at this 
time," he said, " a squab figure, without any preten- 
sion to beauty, but a good motherly sort of woman." 
After a cup of excellent tea, ttc. the evening passed 
in conversation. There were present, besides the 
family, a son of Lafayette, and another French gen- 
tleman. While they were talking, a servant came 
into the room and said to Washington, " John would 
like the newspaper, sir." He replied, "you may 
take it," but after he had gone out, said, " he had 
better mind his work." He then told Mr. Smith a 
story of his coachman, a long-tried and faithful man. 
One very rainy day he was obliged to order his car- 
riage unexpectedly, to go a long distance on business. 
After getting into it he perceived that there was some 
delay about starting, and putting his head out, he 
saw that there was a great bustle among his servants, 
who were trying to mount the coachman on the 
box, and with much difficulty, at length succeeded. 



LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. ' 119 

*' What is the matter? " asked the general. The ser- 
vants replied, that he was intoxicated ; " where- 
upon," said Washington to Mr. Smith, " I was 
tempted to say to the man at once, be gone about 
your business. But the coachman at that moment 
turned round and said, ' never fear, massa, I '11 drive 
you safe.' And I trusted him," continued Washing- 
ton, " and he never drove better." 

At about half past nine, Mr. Smith signified his 
intention of retiring, when Washington also arose, 
and taking a lamp, led the way to a most comfortable 
apartment, in which was a fire brightly blazing. He 
assured his guest, that the fire would be ''perfectly 
safe," and intimated that he might '' like to keep his 
lamp burning through the night." In the morning, 
after breakfast, Mr. Smith took leave, though desired 
to prolong his visit ; and a very urgent invitation 
was given, that he should " bring his bride to see 
them." Horses were brought to the door, and Wash- 
ington accompanied him some miles on the way. 
" He was always," said Mr. Smith, " dignified, and 
one stood a little in awe of him." ' 

• This account was kindly furnished me hy a lady, who wrote it down 
the evening after she heard it from Judge Smith. The following anec- 
dote, I helieve, rests on unquestioned authority. It was told to Mr. Mason 
hy the Hon. Joseph Lewis, who was for thirty years a member of congress, 
and was called l)y Mr. Jefferson, " the residuary legatee of federalism 
in Virginia." Judge Marshall and Judge Washington were on their 
way to Mount Vernon, attended by a servant who had the charge of a 
large portmanteau containing their clothes. At their last stopping place 
there happened to be a Scotch pedlar, with a pack of goods which re- 
sembled their portmanteau. The roads were very dusty, and a little 
before reaching the general's, they, thinking it hardly respectful to pre- 
sent themselves as they were, stopped in a neighboring wood to change 
their clothes. The colored man got down his portmanteau, and just as 



1'20 LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 

This was the last time that Mr. Smith met Wash- 
ington, but he continued through hfe to cherish 
towards him fcehngs such as he liad for no other 
luunan being. He pronounced a eulogy upon him 
at his death ; and one of his last compositions was a 
lecture on his private character. It was delight tul to 
witness the veneration, amounting almost to rever- 
ence, which he uniformly expressed, mingled, as the 
feeling always was, with the sentiment of religious 
gratitude, as if by the especial hand of God, he had 
been raised up for his country's good. And all, who 
follow with deep interest the history of our country 
step by step through the war, and the greater perils 
that succeeded when the war was over, must with 
devout joy and thanksgiving recognize the influence 
of the great man, whose character rises so high, and 
with each coming generation, will rise so much 
higher, not only above all others with whom he was 
connected, but above his own position as the head 
and father of a great nation, — outshining evcji the 
splendor of his actions and his fame. His greatness 



they had prepared themselves for the new garments, out flew some 
fancj' soap and various other articles belonging to the pedlar, whose 
goods had been brought on instead of their own. They were so struck 
by the consternation of their servant, and the ludicrousness of their own 
position, being there naked, that they burst into loud and repeated 
shouts of laughter. Washington, who happened to be out upon his 
grounds near by, heard the noise, and came to see what might be the 
occasion of it, when, finding his friends in that strange plight, he was 
so overcome with laughter, that he actually rolled upon the ground. 

Judge Marshall tokl the Hon. Benjamin Watkins Leigh, within tliree 
monllis of his death, that he was never free from restraint in Washing- 
ton's presence — never felt quite at ease, such was Washington's state - 
liness and dignity. 



LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 121 

was not dependent upon circumstances. It was not 
Trenton, nor Yorktown, nor the successful termina- 
tion of a seven years' war, nor the chief command in 
a righteous cause, nor the highest station in the land, 
that made him illustrious. Other men have been 
dwarfed by their own achievements, and, on ap- 
proaching them, we are saddened and disappointed 
to see the man dwindling away before the magnifi- 
cent associations that history has gathered round 
them, as when, in disinterring from a pyramid of 
Egypt the dusty remains of an ancient king, we are 
pained by the contrast between the grandeur of the 
monument and the meanness of him by whom it 
was erected. But Washington can suffer by no 
such comparison. Through whatever avenue of il- 
lustrious deeds and high associations he is ap- 
proached, we lose nothing of our admiration and 
respect for him. Great as were his office, his ac- 
tions, and his mission upon the earth, the man towers 
always above them all. In his presence we are im- 
pressed only by himself. Such power has a really 
great and good man, over all the circumstances 
that usually attend on human greatness. He whose 
influence rests on a foundation like this, cannot 
pass away from the admiration and affection of 
mankind. Whatever was connected with him, be- 
comes almost sacred to us. 

It is not long since I first saw Mount Vernon, be- 
ing on a journey from the south. It had not oc- 
curred to me that we should pass the spot, till it was 
announced, and I saw before me on a hill, rising 
gently, and commanding a wide view of the river, 
11 



122 LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 

the home of Washington. I had never been so 
affected by any other scene. Battle fields, and all 
such })laccs have disappointed me. But here were 
associations too strong and sacred, a quiet domestic 
influence in the place itself, so harmonizing with his 
character, that I almost seemed to see, sitting on his 
piazza, or walking through his grounds, the man 
who in his greatness stands so widely apart from 
all other men in the world's history. I wished to 
throw myself down like a little child, and weep. 
The emotions of that hour, and the conversation that 
followed with an intelligent Virginian, who was sub- 
dued almost to tears, I shall not soon forget. And 
while at the capital^ I could not but think, how dif- 
ferent would be the standing, and how different 
the influence going from them, if the noisy actors 
there, who boast of their chivalry and call them- 
selves our national rulers, would go on pilgrim- 
age to Mount Vernon, there to learn how calm and 
gentle a thing is the highest greatness and all true 
dignity of mind. 



CHAPTER V. 

1797—1801. 

FOURTH TERM IN CONGRESS DIFFICULTIES WITH 

FRANCE SETTLED IN EXETER U. S. DISTRICT 

ATTORNEY INTEREST IN POLITICS JUDGE OF 

PROBATE. 

Mr. Smith had now completed his third term of ser- 
vice in congress. His position in the house was grat- 
ifying to his feehngs, and, with his experience and 
his attainments, the result of careful study, he had 
been constantly rising in the esteem of those through- 
out the country whose approbation he most val- 
ued. He was on pleasant terms of personal inter- 
course with many of the distinguished men of his 
time : with the elder Adams, Oliver Ellsworth and 
John Jay, witli Alexander Hamilton and John Mar- 
shall, Rufus King, and Charles C. Pinckney, Timothy 
Pickering, Samuel Dexter, and Caleb Strong ; and 
met, with the freedom of intimate friendship, Fisher 
Ames, George Cabot, Robert Goodloe Harper, Chris- 
topher Gore, Oliver Wolcott, Theodore Sedgewick, 
and others, whose names, now less familiar, were 



124 i.iVK or .irnin', s>!rr>i. 

hardlv loss proiuiiKMit in tlu^ir day.' Hut \\c was al- 
ways luoio (li^sirous o( hoiui; a la\v\(M- than a staU's- 
iium, aiul, tirtnl of [niblic lil'o, K>n:4Vil, as lie said, " to 
bo at homo, soatt^l by a smul;- liro of Ids owii Uindliiin', 
wluMc^ iioilhor busiiu^ss iu>r im}HMtiiuMil yisilors slundd 
disturb bis inoditatioiis." Ho had dottMiniiuMl \o 
withdraw iVoin tho national oonnoils and atttMid to 
tho piaolitH^ o( tho law. Bnl, towards tho oloso o( 
HiK), ho was chosen for anolhor torni in coni;ross, 
almost without oppositit^n, hayini; a oonsidiMably 
lari^or nuiubor o( \o\cs than oitluM' o( tho otlua- U(Mi- 
tloiuon, whoso nanus woro upon tho saino tiekot. 
Sinco ho had dotorminod to (|uit. [Hiblic lil'o, I *\o not 
know why ho pcMinittod hiinsolf to bo again a oandi- 
datc\ 'V\\c nnisons i^iyon in tho tt^llowiiii; liMttM', 
(I8lh Noyonibor, H !)(>.") to Miss Uoss, aro not (juito 
satistaotory : " Mli/.a, you aro (|uito a llattoror : 1 
nc^ytM- was yory uniVitMully to llallory, l>ut yours is 
poouliarly i;ratcM"ul. Vou do not spoil int^ as you bo- 
i^in to foar ; your praises n\ako nie anxious to ilescrrc 
iheni. I wish to owe to your justiee. what I am 
alVaid 1 nuist now attribute to your partiality. ^ on 
told me, in a lormer Km tor, that you found I was a 
eandiilatt^ for eon^rc^ss, and that you thoui;ht this 
irreeoneilable with what I luul told you of my disin- 
elinaiion lor publie life. The phrase ' bein^;- a can- 
didate,' has not the same mi\inin?4" hore as at the 

' Till (ho violiMit oonlosl on tlio TMitisU tioiU\ lio \vm\ Iuh'U on tViiMully 
lornis \vitl\ IMadison. ami Imuui hini always vory oMi.uini,' in inipartin^^' 
or noinlin<j: out tho moans oi' aoqnirinij infoiniaUou i>u i)olitioal snhjools. 
At lliat tinio lio luiii no oon»uinnicatioa will) Uini, and boliovod l>in» tiis- 
liouoNl ; lull llio.so lioslilo fooUnj;?; disai>|)oarod, and dnring llio latlor 
pail oi his lifo ho hold hin\ in i,'roat rospoot. 



Lrri: of .nir)(;K SMiTir. ly.O 

soiillivvard. It iriciiris with you a j)erson wlio (;x- 
prcHsc's a dosin.' for an oiYw.r., solicits votes, pcr}iaf)s 
trcnlH tl»o clcf^tors. n<'re it only means a [)crson 
talked of for jiii odiro ; not l>y himself or f)articnlar 
conneelions, for in that case he certainly would 
not Ik; (lieclcd. I did not ;i(lverlis(i the public that 
1 would not serve, f did not know that I should 
have the offer, and \ was, and yet am, uncertain 
whether thini^^s may not be so circumstanced that 1 
may wish to ^^o one session more. At [)resrMit, how- 
ever, it is the furthest from my thoughts and wishes. 
My inclination is, to sit down in some; country town, 
where the soci(;ty will be tolerable, in a small run of 
practice in th<; way of my f)rofession. I have, on 
my own account, but little desire to be ric:h ; and I 
would lake; as inany prcicautions a;:ainst ambition as 
I would a;^ainst the yellow fever, the one bein^ as 
great an en(;my to happiness as tli(; other is to life. 
The (ever of the mind T take to be the <.^r(;ater evil of 
the two." It was Mr. Smith's intention to come 
with his wile inunediately to the noith, resigning his 
oflic'e, without even taking his seat under the now 
commission ; but the call of an extra session changed 
his j)lan, and on the 4th of April lie set out from 
Maryland alone. 

To Mrs. Smith. "New Castle, 0th April, WM, 
One o'clock, I*. M. Ib-re we have been the last 
four hours, and here we are like to remain the next 
four — the wind and tide against us. That is gen- 
erally the way with misfortunes, they seldom come 
single. Oh that you were here ! that I might have 
somebody to vent my ill humors u[)on, somebody in 



126 LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 

duty bound to bear them all. Such a villanous 
house and such company ! Positively I will set out 
on foot, if the winds do not tack about. As to the 
tide, it is not to be expected that it should relax a 
tittle of its punctuality and steadiness, to oblige good 
company ; and, myself always excepted, a more 
scurvy set were never collected, for one packet. 
Noah's packet, with all the beasts, birds and reptiles 
of creation in it, was nothing to it. We (by which 
in this case I mean they,) look for all the world like — 
like — hke the Harrises, Wrights, and Findleys in 
your neighborhood. After having said this, I will 
not affront the old gentleman, whose name is often 
used on these occasions by way of comparison, so 
much as to say they resemble him. If he resembles 
them, his enemies have not done him justice — he 
is worse than they have painted him. One would 
think, seeing such shoals of miscreants going to Phil- 
adelphia, that all the vices, deformities, natural and 
moral uglinesses of creation, were summoned in 
congress in Philadelphia, and that these were the 
deputies. Fit representatives for such constituents ! 
Thank heaven, they can steal nothing from me ! " 

To the Hon. Dwight Foster, 16th April, 1797. 
*' I need not say that I left Bladensburg, (leaving 
Mrs. Smith there,) with regret. In a few days we 
should have set out together, but the president's pro- 
clamation deranged all our plans. Not having been 
fortunate enough to have made my resignation before 
congress were summoned, I considered that I could 
not with honor do it till after the session, and tiiere- 
fore will be obliged to attend. You see, my dear 



LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 127 

sir, my patriotism is not a dead letter, an inactive 
principle. It will cost me one thousand miles travel, 
and the sacrifice of happiness you can estimate with- 
out any description or calculation of mine. I left 
Philadelphia on Monday, at noon, and arrived here 
yesterday evening. I spent a few minutes with our 
friend Ames, at Dedham. His patriotism, like the 
French ships he so fancifully described, burns to the 
water's edge. We shall miss him next session. I 
spent some time with Mr. Pickering and the new 
president, on my way through Philadelphia. I ask 
the old gentleman's pardon for mentioning him last. 
I had from the former a very circumstantial account 
of the villanous treatment of our minister by our 
good friends and only natural allies, and it is really 
worse than the newspapers tell. The morning after 
they received the news of their successes in Italy, 
they gratified Mr. Pinckney with a note in writing, 
telling him they would not receive him as minister, 
and offering him passports for Holland. These devils 
are honestly entitled to the pure and fervent hatred 
of every true American. I am glad I have it in my 
power to say that those, with whom I have con- 
versed, appear to be decided — those south as well 
as north." 

The following portions of a hastily written letter, 
from the Hon. George Cabot to Mr. Smith, will serve 
to show something of the feelings of the time, as 
well as of the sentiments of one of the wisest and 
ablest men in the union : " Brookline, April 17, 
1797. My dear sir : it is easy to say what ought 
not to be done, in certain conjunctures, but diffi- 



128 LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 

cult to determine what ought. The truth is, that 
we often arrive at a dilemma, in which sometiiing 
must be done, and yet that something must appear 
to be wrong ; for the inconveniences of the course 
taken, whatever it be, must be considerable, and will 
be tile most known, and the only ones felt. But no 
considerations of this kind will deter many men, whom 
I am proud to call friends, from adopting any measures 
which, in their judgment, the public good may re- 
quire. But what arc these measures? you ask. I 
wish I could give a satisfactory answer to the ques- 
tion, but I confess I cannot. There is, however, in 
my mind, no difficulty in deciding, that an embargo 
would be much more injurious to us, than all the 
depredations will be ; much more injurious to us 
than to the French ; and indeed much more injurious 
to the other nations who have colonics, than to the 
French. As a permaneiit measure, or principal 
measure in any system, I consider an embargo as 
always preposterous, being necessarily more distress- 
ing to the nation that imposes it, than to the nation 
against which it is intended to operate. But there 
is an infinitude of cases in which partial, special, or 
temporary embargoes may be expedient, and there- 
fore, at all times of public danger, the executive 
ought to be authorized by law to lay them. In the 
most probable cases this power cannot be exercised 
directly by congress without defeating its own de- 
signs. I now release you from the embargo, and 
proceed to express my hopes that the first measures 
of congress will be to provide more 7'evenue. A land 
tax, however un[)alatable at first, will be approved 



LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 129 

by the people themselves, after they are brought to 
contemplate a little more soberly the nature and ex- 
tent of the public dangers. The few frigates, which 
are in forwardness, ought to be equipped forthwith ; 
and the merchants should be authorized to defend 
their vessels, as far as it can be done, without actual 
war. If no better idea occurs on this point, let con- 
voys accompany them. But a minute examination 
of the rights of nations is requisite, to enable a man 
to delineate this system fully. With respect to a 
new embassy, it would be disgraceful, and indicate a 
dread of France, which is already too great ; but 
my principal objection to it is, that it may be easily 
made the means of recruiting the exhausted strength 
of the French party within our country, and their 
mischiefs are more to be dreaded, than any their mas- 
ters can perpetrate without. 

" Thus, my friend, you see with what readiness I 
give you my crudest opinions. If they are erroneous, 
it will be a satisfaction that they have no authority, 
and I no responsibility. But before I close this let- 
ter, let me entreat you to be at Philadelphia on the 
day mentioned by the president. Probably you will 
then find a well-digested plan of the executive, which, 
if not repugnant to your own ideas, you will zeal- 
ously support. If no system is formed by the exe- 
cutive, or such as shall be formed is not supported, 
there will be no consistency, and of course no effi- 
ciency, in our measures." 

Within a fortnight of the time that Mr. Smith 
left Bladensburg, his wife was afflicted by the death 
of her mother. It is remarkable that neither of 



130 LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 

them, in the letters written on the occasion, refers to 
the only true source of consolation. There is no ex- 
pression of devout confidence ajid resignation, and no 
intimation even of religious feeling. In Mrs. Smith's 
early letters, generally, there is more of Stoic fortitude 
than Christian trust ; and her husband's Cinistianity, 
till he had suffered deeply, seems to have been rather 
a conviction of the intellect, than a sentiment of the 
heart. He received it as approved by reason, and 
cherished it as essential to the well-being of society. 
He shrunk from the infidel philosopiiy of France, as 
tearing away the supports, and laying waste the 
hopes and finer aflcctions through which alone the 
great ends of government may be secured. 

On the death of his brother Robert, who died in De- 
cember, 1795, he wrote as follows to the widow : " 1 
sincerely sympathize with you in this afllictive dis- 
pensation. As you are called to drink dee})ly of 
this bitter cup, I sincerely pray that your fortitude, 
resignation, and patience, may be equal to the trial. 
It is not necessary that I should suggest any consi- 
derations to you on this occasion ; your own good 
sense will present them to your mind ; and that ha- 
bitual piety, and regard for the principles of religion, 
which have hitherto marked your character, will not 
desert you in a time of adversity, when you so much 
need the consolations which they, and they only can 
bestow. It cannot fail to give )^ou satisfaction to 
reflect, tiiat we have every reason to believe that our 
friend has made a happy exit, and gains far more by 
the exchange he has made than you lose. From 
my knowledge of him, and opinion of you, I am 



LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 131 

persuaded that your recollections of past scenes will 
be very far from being painful. They will be pleas- 
ant, and such as those who have lived a life of virtue 
and goodness, on the death of a most intimate friend, 
alone can experience." 

After visiting New England, Mr. Smith reached 
Philadelphia the 17th of May, and took an active 
part in the business of the session. The following 
is from a letter to his brother Samuel, dated July 
3, 1797 : " By the last accounts from Mr. Pinckney, 
now in Amsterdam, the aspect of things in Europe, 
as it respects us, is not changed for the better. 
There is every appearance of war with the terrible 
republic. If a general peace, however, should now 
take place, and of course the war cease between 
France and England, we shall avoid an open rupture 
with our allies. On Saturday a number of gentle- 
men in this city, with some members of congress, 
gave a dinner to Monroe,' in testimony of their 
approbation of his conduct in France. Was 
there ever such a set of miscreants before ? The 
weather begins to be extremely hot and disagreeable. 
I long to bid an eternal adieu to Philadelphia, and in 
this I am joined by Mrs. Smith. My friend Ames 
writes me every week, and I find much instruction 
and entertainment in his letters. I am sorry that he 
is declining in his health, and fear he will hardly sur- 
vive the relapse he has had this spring." 

Mrs. Smith soon joined her husband in Philadel- 

* It ought to be added that Mr. Smith, after a full knowledge of the 
circumstances, changed his views in respect to Mr. Monroe's conduct in 
France. 



132 LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 

phia, and remained with him till the close of the ses- 
sion, early in July, when they went together to their 
new home, in Exeter, New Hampshire. In making 
their domestic arrangement?, as in looking forward to 
the true sources of happiness, their views were sim- 
ple, unambitious, and just. " Riches," he said in a 
letter to her before their marriage, '' which take to 
themselves wings ; beauty, which fades as a flower ; 
perpetual spring, which exists nowhere but in the 
imagination of the poets, make no part of my calcu- 
lation. Good sense, improved by education and ex- 
perience ; a moderate portion of the good things of 
this world, remote from both poverty and riches ; 
hearts united in the most tender friendship, whose 
highest bliss is to make each other happy — indeed, 
my love, we do not deceive ourselves when we dwell 
on this picture ; it is not overdrawn." In writing to 
Miss Ross, January 27, 1797, he had said : " My cor- 
respondent at Exeter, New Hampshire, has just written 
me that he can have a house, which he thinks will an- 
swer our purpose, for forty dollars a year. I have no 
recollection of the house of which he writes, though I 
am well acquainted with the town. In a small vil- 
lage, when one must depend on hiring, you know 
one cannot have a choice, or at least it must be a 
very limited one. From the price, I should con- 
clude it must be a very ordinary house ; but per- 
haps it will serve our purpose for a little while, say 
for a year or two, till we can accommodate ourselves 
better, either in buying or hiring. I have as yet 
made no arrangements as to furnishing a house, and 
shall not, till I have the pleasure of your commands. 



LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 133 

I persuade mj^self that you will concur in opinion 
with me, that in this, as in everything else, we ought 
to consult propriety. As our means are not great, 
and our plans frugal and economical, extravagance 
in furniture, even if it cost us nothing, should be 
avoided, as it would tend to destroy that uniformity 
which 1 hope we shall never lose sight of." 

February 11, 1797. "Nothing can be more just 
than the sentiments in your letter, ' t!mt if we live 
above our income to please others, we shall lose that 
independence without which there can be no happi- 
ness.' I wished for wealth, it is true, but I do not 
repine because we have it not. We shall, I flatter 
myself, never want a competence ; and if heaven 
had given us riches, Eliza, we should not have 
hoarded them up, we should only have been the 
almoner of beneficence. Now perhaps we shall have 
the same pleasure in giving a little we should have 
had in bestowing much." 

The following, written in connection with the 
same subject, is in a more enthusiastic strain : " My 
heart has blossomed with the sweetest hope, and 
I have been happier than at any former period of my 
life. In looking forward, though I do not flatter 
myself with a total exemption from all the numerous 
train of ' ills that flesh is heir to,' yet I feel that we 
shall be happy. We shall be but little dependent on 
the world for happiness. Two hearts, united in the 
tenderest bonds of love, which live but for each 
other, which are blessed only when they are bless- 
ing, and which receive pleasure only when they 
bestow it, must be happy ; they will find all their 
heaven in themselves." 
12 



134 LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 

These were views to which he always attached 
very great importance. He consulted a wise econ- 
omy, that he might be just, independent, and gene- 
rous. A comprehensive treatise on a careful but 
liberal system of economy in private life, in public 
aflhirs, and especially in the management of literary 
and charitable institutions, might be compiled from 
his writings, and illustrated by his example. And 
when we see how many young men, with fair pros- 
pects, ruin themselves by extravagant expenditures, 
and in how many the springs of kindly feeling are 
dried up from a liard and unthrifty parsimony ; 
when we consider how litde a wise and generous 
economy is practised by public bodies, whose con- 
duct is too often marked, at one and the same 
time, by wanton profuseness and niggardly mean- 
ness, and when we see the sad waste of funds 
which have been treasured up, through years of self- 
denial, that in some public institution they may be a 
perpetual fountain, going forth in streams of know- 
ledge or of Christian kindness, — we cannot think that 
he has overestimated the importance of the subject. 

On the 10th of July, 1797, Mr. Smith was ap- 
pointed United States' attorney for the district of 
New Hampshire, and on the 26th of the same month 
sent in to Gov. Oilman the resignation of his office 
as member of congress. If we may judge from his 
confidential letters, it was then his intention to take 
no further part in political matters as a public man ; 
and he did not repent of his decision. His profes- 
sional business and domestic concerns gave him full 
occupation, and of the kind he desired.* In a letter, 



LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 135 

9th March, 1798, to his friend, the Hon. Dvvight Fos- 
ter, who was still in congress, he says: " I have never 
regretted my leaving the house. Of late, indeed, I 
rejoice with joy unspeakable that I am one of the 
people, and that I am not a partaker of the dishonor 
which attached to the body of w^hich Lyon is a mem- 
ber, and who could retain him, wlien a fair opportu- 
nity offered of getting rid of the animal. Indeed, 
my friend, it is carrying party spirit too far, when we 
sutier our character, as men, to be disgraced and sa- 
ciiticed on the altar of party." 

He took still a decided interest in public atiairs, 
and, notwithstanding what he here says of party spirit, 
was undoubtedly more influenced by it at this than at 
any other period of his life. He was impressed with 
the horror which the French revolution was so well 
fitted to produce, and believed that if the princi- 
ples of tiie opposition here should prevail, our coun- 
try would be involved in the same scenes of blood- 
shed, anarchy, and crime. His letters are marked 
sometimes by hope, sometimes by gloom, sometimes 
dealing in a playful raillery, and sometimes pouring 
out his sarcasms in all the pungent bitterness of a 
real detestation. " It is," he says, in 1798, " my 
firm belief that the righteous shall not always mourn, 
nor the wicked always prosper. On every calcula- 
tion of human events our prospect is gloomy ; but, 
ere long, the clouds will disperse, and we shall have 
a bright day." Again : " I am almost beginning to 
be sick of republican government, and have half a 
mind to adopt O'Brian's political creed before he 
sailed from this port (Portsmouth) for Algiers. In 



136 LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 

conversation, he did not hesitate to give the prefer- 
ence to the Algerine government over ours. He said 
the dey and his regency would despatch more busi- 
ness in half a day than our congress in a month ; and 
he did not see but that the Algerine atiairs were as 
well managed as ours. Really, my friend, there is 
too much truth in all this. Suppose the dey had 
been bufleted by Satan as we have been by the 
French, would he, think you, spend three or four 
years in determining about the means of protection, 
till everything worth protecting had fallen a prey to 
the rapacity of the enemy? How long have you 
been building three frigates ? They must, forsooth, 
be built in three ditlerent places ; and you must, to 
show your economy, appropriate but half as much as 
was necessary for the object. In short, you behave 
so, that the executive oificers must, in tlieir self- 
defence, deceive you. You talk about checks. There 
are checks enough, in all conscience, enough to sat- 
isfy the most zealous anarchist." 

Exeter, 20th April, 1798. " Portsmouth had cir- 
culated a petition to the selectmen, to call a town- 
meeting on the subject. I am told they are now as 
zealous on the right side, as they have been in times 
past, on the wrong, and make the most extravagant 
professions of loyalty to the ' powers that be.' But 
this is always the way with the mob. Heaven de- 
fend us against mob government. 'T is the essence 
of tyranny ; the sublimation of villany, and the 
scourge of honest men." ....'' Your favor, with 
the despatches and instructions, came safe to hand 
by the last mail. 1 have, in consequence, re-perused 



LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 137 

them. As to our own government, I find everything to 
approve ; and, as to that nest of vipers, everything to 
condemn. Surely, they are ripe i'or destruction. If, 
by God's good providence, they have been permitted 
to travel thus far in the paths of wickedness, that He, 
through them, may confound the lying philosophers 
of our age, the end must be fully answered. Those 
who are skeptics now, would not listen to a preacher 
from the dead. Enough has been done for the fools, 
and as to the knaves, nothing will do them any good, 
but the whipping-post and the gallows." Again, in 
reference to the same class of men, he says that he 
would not counteract the designs of Providence, 
which possibly might be for wise purposes, to re- 
serve them for punishment in the world to come, but 
still he should be glad to have them hanged here ; 
for, he adds, " it is but a small addition to the pun- 
ishment that awaits them, but very useful in this 

world, and particularly in this country." 

" We are this moment engaged, in this town, in 
raising a temple to the Lord of Hosts, not a taber- 
nacle for the filthy worship of the goddess of reason. 
The French pollute everything they meddle with. 
We have great reason to be thankful they have not 
laid their filthy hands on religion. They have brought 
reason, republicanism, public spirit, Slc. into ridicule. 
I hope God has, in his good providence, determined 
to honor these sacred things, by making the abuse of 
them as infamous as they have made themselves 
wicked." ''The French praise him, (Gerry,) I cannot 
like him. Since they have voted the Deity in again, 
I own I feel more doubts than usual about the evi- 
dences of his religion." 
12* 



138 LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 

27th June, 1798. " I received your last letter of 
the 19th by the mail of Monday, and anxiously wait 
for the mail of this day. The plot thickens, and we 
are near the catastrophe. I am inclined to think that 
the public mind is prepared for the last solemn ap- 
peal. War is inevitable, and the sooner we have it, 
the better. I have seen Talleyrand's letter in the 
newspapers. It is couched in true democratic lan- 
guage, well calculated to ' deceive the people who sit 
upon the wall,' to whom it is, in fact, addressed. On 
men of sense it can have no influence, except that of 
making them hate the great nation still more. It is 
entirely destitute of argument, and is no answer to 
the memorial. I am sorry the evidence multiplies so 
much against Gerry. He must have acted impru- 
dently at least ; but Marshall is with you, and can 
tell you all about it. Give me the result of Marshall's 
communications. I place great confidence in him as 
a true patriot and a discerning man, and he must be 
able to communicate much valuable and useful in- 
formation, and to advise what Israel ought to do in 
this perilous hour.' The French must, in all this 
manceuvering wiiii Gerry, {)rincipally aim at gaining 
time. They never can believe that our government 
will sufler the negotiation with him alone to proceed. 

1 Judge Smith used to give a remarkable iuslance of Judge Marshall's 
ability as a debater in congress. Tiiere bad arisen a diseussion on some 
intricate and perplexing subject, in which several prominent members of 
the house, and, among them, Mr, Gallatin, had taken part. After they 
had spoken, Mr. Marsliall rose, and in a few words laid the whole mat- 
ter open, with such perfect distinctness, that Mr. Gallatin, who had just 
spoken on the opposite side, exclaimed, " Mr. Speaker, we are all wrong ; 
the gentleman from Virginia is right," and the whole house was satis- 
fied. It is said that Juilge IVIarshall never, in his life, look up more 
thaa three quarters of an hour iu a single speech. 



LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 139 

Indeed, I doubt not, long ere this he is stripped of 
his ministerial robes. The French have my free per- 
mission to embrace him as kindly and fraternally as 
they please. I wish our good president could be per- 
suaded to rely a little less on himself, and a little 
more on his faithful ministers, who, to my certain 
knowledge, were opposed to this appointment, or, 
rather, were not consulted." 

These extracts, though very great allowances will 
of course be made for their humorous exaggerations, 
sufficiently show how strongly he was carried away 
by the political feelings of the day. He was con- 
sulted by the secretary of the treasury, Mr. Wolcott, 
in respect to his appointments in New Hampshire, 
and in the advice he gave, took decidedly the ground, 
which he afterwards as decidedly condemned, that 
all, who did not support the administration, were to 
be removed from office. " A real jacobin," he says 
in a letter to Mr. AVolcott, " in my opinion is never 
made by want of knowledge only. It is the qualities 
of the heart that constitute the essence of this de- 
testable character. He hates the light, because it 
reproves his deeds. It is a solecism in politics, that 
a government should be administered by its enemies. 
It has always been my opinion, that those whom the 
sovereign people entrust with the administration of 
their political concerns, are in duty bound to appoint 
and continue in office, those men, and those only, 
who are firmly attached to the principles of our gov- 
ernment and the administration." Mr. Smith even 
went so far as to maintain that a public officer should 
be removed, unless he took an active part in support 



140 LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 

of tlie administration. In a letter to Joseph Whip- 
ple, who by his advice had been removed from an 
important office in Portsmouth, he says : '* To your 
politeness as a gentleman, integrity, zeal and intelli- 
gence as an officer, I could most cheerfully bear wit- 
ness. But these are not called in question. You 
are sensible that the public opinion of your politics is 
what I have mentioned When our govern- 
ment has been assailed by a profligate foreign faction, 
to be moderate, is to be cold in the cause, and at 
once a hypocrite and a traitor. Ten thousand lies 
have been daily circulated by lying men and lying 
presses against our public organs. Those who knew 
them to be so, and yet have been silent, are sharers 
in the guilt.* I am told that treasonable speeches 
against the government, were daily uttered in your 
streets. Silence under such circumstances, is a sort 
of misprision of treason." 

This view of the subject is not unlike that generally 
taken by violent partisans in defence of their illiberal 
and exclusive measures, and is, as Mr. Smith in his 
riper judgment maintained, inconsistent with the true 
principles of republican government. It opens the 
way to exaction, meanness and corruption, converting 
the oflices of a people into the spoils of party warfare, 
holding them up, not to be filled with dignity and 
fidelity, but to be polluted and preyed upon by par- 
tisan rapacity and violence. It degrades the political 
action of a nation, from an honorable contest in be- 
half of principles and measures, to a low scrambling 
for official rank and emolument, and enlists under its 
standard, only the selfish and vulgar passions of our 



LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 141 

nature. The appointments made by Mr. Smith's 
advice were, I beheve, such as are usually made un- 
der such circumstances ; and in more instances than 
one, the places of experienced and faithful officers 
were assigned to men of insufficient attainments and 
irregular habits. His motives were undoubtedly cor- 
rect. The perilous condition of our government, 
exposed to foreign factions and intrigue, and the con- 
sternation caused by the mighty events that were 
shaking the earth, and threatening all governments 
with ruin, might at that time furnish an excuse for 
stronger measures than could be justified at any sub- 
sequent period of our history. Still, proscription for 
opinion's sake, is at all times inconsistent with the 
genius of a free government, and must at length 
prove fatal in its consequences. 

But however much Mr. Smith may have been in- 
terested in political matters, his attention was almost 
exclusively given to the studies and business of his 
profession. His practice was laborious and exten- 
sive,' and with what he had already laid up, promised 
in time a competency for himself and family. " I 
have less," ho somewhere says, in a letter to his bro- 
ther, " of the hoarding appetite than most people, 
and I thank God it does not increase with age. I 
love economy, and hate avarice and idleness. I 
never lost an hour's sleep with care, and never in- 



1 For the year ending 1st of September, 1799, the net income from his 
profession was $2351 ; do. do. ending 1st of September, 1800, was 
$3018 69; do. do. ending 1st of September, 1801, was $3077 50. He 
practised in the counties of Rocicingham, Strafford, Hillsborough and 
Cheshire. 



142 LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 

tciul to. I would choose to fill up tlio day vvitli 
busiucss iiud action, because I am lia|>i)icst when 
employed ; but care aii<l anxiety I put far away from 
me." This was, through lite, a true picture of him- 
self. He loved labor for its own sake, and had 
besides an honorable ambition to do his best, in 
whatever he undertook. JUit he indulged in no un- 
necessary forebodings or regrets. Having done all 
that he could do, ho was content to leave the rest 
with llim who governs the world, and this habitual 
cheerfulness, while it left his faculties always bright, 
contributed in no small degree, to his ability to labor, 
his health, enjoyment and success. In the fall of 
IHOO, Mr. t^mith was a[)pointe(l judge of probate for 
the county of Rockingham, and contimied in that 
ollice lor about two years. lie labored hard to re- 
duce to order this branch of law, and pre]>ared a full 
and ( laborate treatise on the subject. This work, 
which, in the opinion of one eminently (jualified to 
judg(% was nuicli sui)erior to any treatise on probate 
law then existing, is still in manuscript. But more 
than forty years have ]>assed by, and no legal essays, 
except those, which with remarkable power illustrate 
the great and fundamental principles of law, can, 
after lying in silence nearly half a century, speak 
with any decisive authority to a generation who have 
sprung up since they were prepared, and who, edu- 
cated in other elementary works, are bound by other 
systems of legislation. 



CHAPTER VI. 

1801 — 1809. 

JTTDGE OF THE U. S. CIRCUIT COURT CHIEF JUS- 
TICE OF NEW HAMPSHIRE INFLUENCE AND CHA- 
RACTER AS A JUDGE HIS CHARGES TO THE 

GRAND JURY. 

On the i^Otli of February, 1801, Mr. Smith was 
appointed a judge in the United States circuit court, 
whicli had been estabhslied a short time previous. 
He accepted the appointment, in the following letter 
to John Marshall, then secretary of state, who had 

interested himself in securing for him the office : 

"Exeter, N. II., March 11, 1801. Sir: I liad the 
honor to receive yesterday your letter of the 21st 
ult., inclosing a commission for the office of circuit 
judge of the United States. You will be pleased 
to inform the president, that I accept the apj)oint- 
ment, and that it shall always be my earnest endea- 
vor to merit, as far as I am able, this distinguished 
mark of confidence. Allow me to add, that I am 



144 LIFE ov .iri>nr smith. 

not insoiisiblo, on this occasion, to \\\c kiiuliioss and 
partiality ot' my iVicnds. My obligations to yon arc 
particularly gratciul, as atVording to nic evidence of 
the rei;artl and esteem it has always been my wish 
io deserve and my jnide to cultivate. I am with 
great res|)ect, sir, your obedient servant, J. S." 

Mr. Smith had now reached the otlice to which, 
above all others, he aspired, lie was }>:uticularly for- 
tunate in his associates upon the bench, and always 
spoke of John Lowell, the chief justice, as one of 
the purest and wisest of men, and of Judge Bourne, 
as a delightful companion, full of intelligence and 
life. There was just the sort of diirerence in their 
characters, which might serve to make their inter- 
course most delightful ; the two younger judges hav- 
ing that boyish playfulness in conversation, which 
contrasted so linely with the more sedate wisilom 
of the chief justice, whose chiltlren still remember 
to have seen their mother laugh, till the tears ran 
down her cheeks, at the sallies of Judge Smith's wit. 
Judge Lowell's health had already begun to fail, al- 
lowing him no opjxirt unity to do justice to his pow- 
ers, and short as was the duration of the ollice which 
he held, it outlasted his life. His death, at the time 
of their greatest perplexity, was a sore calamity to his 
associates. 

For three months before engaging in the active 
duties of his otlice, Judge Smith employed himself 
not less than fourteen hours a day on his professional 
studies. He seldom went out of the house, iiis daily 
walk extending only from his dining-room to his li- 
brary. Though always a hard student, he now re- 



LIFE OF JIJDGK SMITJf. H5 

gardcd his former attaiurnorits as of no accoiint, and 
afterwards looked back on those tfiree months as tlie 
beginning of his legal education. It might not be 
safe for others to imitate his exam[>le in this respect, 
for though not of a strong constitution, he had, to a 
very uncommon extent, the power of enduring long- 
continued and severe intellectual applic;ition. Like 
the late Dr. Bowditch, he could bear to be inter- 
rupted in the midst of his professional investigations. 
After attending to what had called him off, he would 
return immediately, and without embarrassment, to 
his studies, and go on with them as if nothing had 
occurred. However deeply he might be engaged, 
and however sudflenly drawn off, he would seemingly 
without effort, and with the utmost good humor, join, 
whether in a frolic with a child, in sportive conversa- 
tion with a young lady, or in answering intricate 
questions of law ; and the moment these were 
finished, return to his previous investigations, when 
no ripple remained to show that the clear deep cur- 
rent of his thought had been disturbed. Those who 
studied law in his office, speak of this as a remark- 
able feature in his character. At first tfiey would 
hesitate about breaking in upon him, when they 
saw him absorbed in study. But they soon found 
that they need have no apprehensions, that, however 
much he might be engaged, he would cheerfully an- 
swer their questions, taking whatever time might be 
needed for the purpose, and then return to his stu- 
dies, without appearing to have been drawn aside. It 
is easy to see how valuable a trait this is in the charac- 
ter of a lawyer, and especially of a judge, enabling 
1 '> 



I4(> LIFE or JUDGl-: SMITH. 

hiin to carry on i\ profound and liiborions ])roces,s of 
investigation, witliout permitting the thonsand little 
points that arc constantly coining np, and which 
sometimes materially alVect the resnlt, to escape, di- 
vert, or annoy him. 

Jndge Smitli entered npon his new office with the 
expectation that it was to contimie for life. The 
studies which it recpiired of him at home, and the 
business of the circnit abroad, were alike suited to 
his taste, and furnished the sort of variety which is 
so essential to a full and liberal culture of the mind. 
He was brought into the society that he most en- 
joyed, and was fdling, in the eyes of the community, 
a useful, responsible, and honorable oflice, and, in 
the enlightened and conscientious discharge of its 
duties, he looked forward to tlie gratification of his 
highest ambition. Uy devoting to it his time and 
strength, by diligence in study and fidelity in action, 
he hoped to be constantly enlarging his stores of 
knowledge, to fulfil an imi>ortant trust as a member 
of society, and to gain the approbation of the wise, 
and the conlidcMice of the good. He used to say, it 
was the only ollic(^ that he. had ever greatly desired, or 
the loss of which he had greatly regretted. In age 
he looked back on no part of his public life with so 
much pleasure, though it was a pleasure accompanied 
always by the feeling, that in losing the ollice he had 
been thrown out of the place best fitted for his im- 
provement, distinction, and usefulness. 

He attended on all the circuits ; but I know of 
nothing unusual cormected with them. In conse- 
quence of the mental derangement of the district 



LIFE OF JUDGE SMlTri. 147 

judge ill New lfamf)siiirc, lie was appointed to hold 
the district court in Portsmouth, when a circumstance 
somewhat emharrassinj^ occurred. The district judge, 
unconscious of his infirmity, took his seat upon the 
bench, attended to the business as it went on, and, 
after the counsel had got through, rose to charge the 
jury. He was, however, soon perjjlexed, and being 
unable to proceed with his charge, uttered a short 
prayer and retired ; when the circuit judge went on, 
as if nothing had taken place. 

Early in the next session of congress, (1801-2,) 
there was manifested a strong disposition to repeal 
the judiciary law of the previous session. A bill for 
that purpose originated in the senate, and after a 
long and spirited debate,' finally passed the house by 



' Tlif r<'IInwing arc oxtracts from two letters from a rncmlior of con- 
gress, Sumuel Tciirify to Juflgc Smith, dated January 14, and Fchruary 
1'.), 1802. " The question for repculinj,' tliiw law has been several days 
dehated in the senate ; and several rneml)i;rs on both sides of the house 
have hi;?hly distinguished themselves, particularly Morris and Tracy, 
for sound sense arui solid argument ; Wright, Cooke, and Stone, for non- 
sense and a])surdity. 

" When Tracy, after his speech, retirerl to the fire, half de-ad with 
his exertions, Calhoun coming up to him, gave liim his hand, and 

saifl, ' You are a stranger to me, sir, hut hy you have made 

rnc your friend. 1 had Ijeen told a thousand lies ahout that part of the 
judiciary established last winter, particularly that the bill was brought 
in at the heel of the session, and hurried tiirough with(»ut consideration 
or dct)ate, in consequence of which I was dis|)osed to repeal it. You 
have cotivinced me that the repeal wriuld be both inexpedient and un- 
constitutional. I shall be with you on the question.' ' Mr. (Jalhoun,' 
said Traey, taking him by the hand, ' may wc depend upon you? ' He 
repflifd, with great earnestness, ' \iy you may.' 

" lie was followed by Mr. Hemphill, of Pennsylvania, who (or more 
than an h(jur held hoth sides of the house, the senate, the lohhy, and 
the gallery, in a mixture of surprise anfl admiration. He is n country 
attorney, ahout twenty-eight years of age, equally remarkalde for the 



148 LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 

a large majority early in Mnrcli. This was purely a 
party measure, adopted solely Tor the purpose of dis- 
placing the judges who had been ajip(Mnled by Mr. 
Adams, and, having that for its object, was palpably 
a violation of the spirit, if not of the letter, of that 
part of the constitution which would guard the inde- 
pendence of the judiciary. But wliether constitu- 
tional or not, the voice of the dominant party was for 
it, and nothing further could be done. 

I find the following letter from Judge Tilghman : 
Philadelphia, May 22, 1802. " Sir : I have the honor 
of addressing you, on behalf of the circuit judges 
for the third circuit of the United States. The act 
of the last session of congress, repealing the law 
under which we hold our offices, has filled our minds 
with the most serious reflections. Believing, as we 
do, that the repealing law is a violation of the con- 
stitution, we feel ourselves impelled by sacred obli- 
gations, to take legal measures for disputing its 
validity. How to bring this important subject to a 
constitutional decision, with the least possible inter- 
ruption of the public convenience and tranquillity, 



simplicity of his mnnncis, the correctness of his morals, and the nio- 
desly of his deportment. It was the general idea, that the suhjeet had 
been so completely exhausted in the senate, that nothing was left for us 
but a dilferent dress and new arrangement of the arguments there used. 
But the ground taken by Mr. Hemphill was so new, his reasonings 
from various parts of the constitution so clear, and his deductions so 
incontrovertible, that it was said several of the majority of the senate 
were staggered. At the close of his sjieeeh, Giles moved that the com- 
mittee should rise and report progress, though it was nearly an hour 
earlier than the usual time of adjourning, observing, that the arguments 
of the i!:entlentan were very weighty, and that lie was not iheu prepared 
lo answer them." 



LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 149 

and how, in the meantime, to conduct ourselves with 
the greatest propriety, arc questions which require 
full and mature deliberation. It appears to us, that 
they cannot well be answered, without a personal 
communication of sentiments between the judges of 
the diflferent circuits. A free and candid discussion 
will lead to that uniformity of conduct, which is, in 
many respects, so desirable. We feel assured that 
we are all efjually interested in the public welffire, 
equally influenced by pure and honorable motives. 
Under these impressions we have thought it advisa- 
ble to request a general meeting of the circuit judges, 
in the city of Philadelphia, on Saturday, the I7th 
July next. An earlier day would not afford time for 
proper notice, and a later might be attended with 
inconvenience. We hope for the benefit of your 
presence and assistance ; but should you be unable 
to attend, which we should indeed consider pecu- 
liarly unfortunate, you will much oblige us by a 
written and full communication of your sentiments." 
To tliis. Judge Smitli replied : '' Exeter, 7th June, 
1802. I feel, as you do, impressed with the convic- 
tiori that some steps ought to be taken to obtain a 
constitutional decision on the late act of congress, re- 
pealing the judiciary law of 1801. It is certainly of 
the highest consequence, in an affair of this kind, 
delicate as respects ourselves, and important as re- 
spects the public welfare, that the most unexception- 
able course of action should be adopted and pursued. 
I see no objection to the meeting you propose in 
July. Perhaps it is die only way of accomplishing 
what we all, I presume, desire. I do not know that 
13* 



150 i.iFK. OF JiixJK s>nrn. 

it will bo ill 111} powoi to attoiul. If it should not, I 
will with i^loasino ooiiiiiuinionto luiythiui; that may 
occur to iiic on tiie subject of the incctini:/' 

Only tour jutli;os attciulcil the pioj^oscil intHMiu^'. 
Another meeting- was apjiointeil to be holdeu in 
Philadelphia, on the '20th of November, the result of 
which was, that a memorial to eonpess was drawn 
up and presented, but without any ellcct. The loss 
of this otlice was the severest disappointment that 
Judi^e Smith experienced in Iiis public life. But 
belbre its term expired, another important judicial 
station was olVered to him. The otlice of chief justice 
of the superior court of judicature in New ITamp- 
shirc had been vacated by the resii;nation of Simeon 
Olcott, who had been elected to the senate of the 
United States. Timothy Farrar was aj^pointed by 
Gov. Gilman, and received the commission of chief 
justice in February, 1^^0"2. He was very desirous 
that the administration of justice should be estab- 
lished on purely lei;al principles, and, with a modesty 
not less remarkable than his gooil sense, kept the 
office open till one, whom he considered i^reatly his 
own superior in the law, should be at liberty to take 
it. This he did by presiding in the court as senior 
justice, without either accepting or declining the 
commission which had been otVered to him, until it 
was ascertained that Judge Smith's olfice in the 
federal court was to be taken from him. lie then 
formally declined the appointment, and the commis- 
sion was made out on the 17th of May for Jeremiali 
Smith. But the smallness of the salary (eight hun- 
dred and fifty dollars a year) was such that Mr. Smitli 



MFi: OF jr;j>f;K SMFTif. 151 

coiild not, think of ;ir;r:optin^' it.. In his r(;ply, June 
5, IH02, to (iov. (^iihrwjri's notico of ifio appointrnont, 
ui'U'.r f;x[)rossifjf^ his ^ajjlifir^ation for this now mark of 
con/idr-nco, and his vviilin^noss to oonlinuo in that 
course; of Mfo, fio adds: " But with tho cornpcn.sfition 
now anno'xod to tfio ofHco, it is riot in my power to 
acco[>t it. It has not f>of;n my lot to acquire any 
consirleraf)le property fjitfierto. I have a family, for 
whom I am hound to provide. I cannot think it my 
duty, at my [)resent time of life, to occupy a situation 
in wfiirJi I must eventually consume the small earn- 
ings of a ihw years of industry anri eeorjomy, and 
\iiry soon find myself, and those I love, depending 
for subsistence on public or private charity. This 
is a suliject on which f could say a great deal, but 
the deli(-acy of my peculiar situation prevents. I 
would not have said so rnucli, and especially about 
rrjy r>wn affairs, rlid I not feel anxious that you, and 
my f(,'llow-citi/ens in general, should be; possessed of 
the true motives which ar-tuate me on this occasion. 
Though I cannot but feel much regret, that I am not 
F)etter qiialified, yet if it seems meet to the legislature 
to make such provision for the office as will enable 
me to ;jcce[>t, I will do so with a firrrj determination 
to devote all my time and powers, such as they are, 
to the discharge of its important duties. If this 
course should not meet the general approbation of 
those to whom the peo[)le have intrusted the power, 
I shall most cheerfully acfjuiesce, so far as I am per- 
sonally concerned, and shall return again to private 
life with as much f>leasure as ever I quitted it." 
In the mean time it had been suggested to him by 



ir>',> 



\.\\'V. ov ^{'lHiV. sMirn. 



Mr. l>(At(M-, (>r Massiu-husrtls, tliioii^h \\\c lion. 
Tiiuolhy nii;(>lo\v,' llial \\c ouijil I'ormally to it\sij4ii 
his ollict* o( rircnll iiuli';(\ bctoK* acci^pliiii; llial of 
ch\c[ \\\s\h'c of i"\(>\\ 1 lain|>shirt\ To this he nplu^il, 
Juno 7. 1S()-J, '* My dear sir: 1 had the |>l(>asui(^ of 
vour l(Mt(a- t>r ih(» lirst iiislaul a Irw days aj;o. 1 >>ill 
not acct^pt tho «wruH> ol' chicl' jiislico, iml(\s.s a<lthtioi» 
is mado to tho coinjuMisalion ; ol' whitli then' is no 
i^itMtiM- prohabihty than tiiat a thonsand dt'inocrats 
shonKl in one day luH'onK^ honest iniMi, or lliat onr 
hrothtM" Prentiee shonld siM up a snij^iiii; sehooK and 
teaeli voeal and instinnuMital nuisie. I cannot, liow- 
ever, snbseribi* to the sentinuMits contained in your 
letter, on th(> necessity and |>roi)ri(My of ;<\v/i;;/ ////;• 
the ollict^ lately ta/itn from \uv, in case I sliouKl lind 
an inclinatitMi to aiu-epl that ol" cliit 1" justice. I rev- 
\i\ii\\\ belieye that I shaU continue a circuit judi^c dc 
Jiiri\ and it is tHjually certain tli;it I shall cease to bo 
a judi^e (/<• J'acto. The ollict* of supreme j^'^'f^^' >'* 
this state, by our stall' const ilutii)n, is inconipatiblo 
Nyith th<' holdini; oi' a hyiui^' ollice umler tlu* I'nited 
States. r>ut as 1 am to receiye no salary, and am 
in no inunediate e\|>iH'tation oi' a jUMision from the 
I'nited States, 1 do not conceiye that it is incompat- 
ible with my titular ollice oi' circuit jud^i", accordiui;" 
to the spirit of t>ur constitution. So nuich in ans^yer 
to an objection iVom a New 1 lampshire citi/.en. In 



• INlr. l'ii;t>U)w, for ni!\ny yosu's sponUor of tlu> lioiisi- ol ic|)rt<stMit!ilivfs 
ill lMiiss.irl»iist<its. Ill' \is(>(l to say that J\i(lm' Siiiiili, with whom ho 
was on intiiiii\to ti'nus, oiuv oxrhiiint'il to him : " Ivii^i'low, you luv a 
clovor Irllow : you nrr a rrn/ cWwr Irllow : I iiavf always said st), and 
huvo tuailo u i;;ivat many oiioinii's hy ii loo." 



l.fVi: OF .t\ IX.E SMITH. ) r>.'{ 

ill*; (:f)nHtil.iJti(>n of tlic (;fiitt;(| St;if<;!;, I fni'l notfiirif^ 
vvliifJ) rf;M(l';rK tli'; two f>Hif.<;H i»ir,orrip;)til)l';. II I 
viewed it. in tfjin li^-^lit, I hIiouM (l<;r,lin(;, ;i.t, ;ill ov<;ntH. 
I corirfjivo tlint tlifrn is nlill fi, fiiirit. ^^Iifrifrif:ririj/ my r)f' 
liopr;, t.fiJit, llir; rirrijif, |ii'l;^<;H will \k: r(/.\<nr<:(\. I nrn 
woll nHHurcd ("in codlidcnr/;^ tluU. ni(;;iHijn:H will \k: 
t'i.l<<;fi to try tlio v.jlidify of tfio rof)f:?tlint/ ur.i. I do 
not, r,on(:f:ivf; lliiit, ;ifr,f,j)tinj/ an oHiff; in tlif; Mtalo in- 
cr>fnf>?itil)lo with that of circuit. jnd;.^f;, ar:cordin^^ to 
tlio Htato coriHtitution, would l>o ovidonr:^ tliat, [ r:on- 
Hid<;r tlio oihcc as cxfinr.t, in cotiHC'imnrf- (A' \]n: n,- 
pcalin^^ law. It. would only ho ovifiori<--o that. I r,f>n- 
Hidor itH dutif;H and o/nolurnofits an HUHponrJod, and 
choso to rnako inyKoh' UHof'ul durin^^ tli(; HiJH[)Cfi.Hiori, 
or, to r.orfio still nf .-iror to tho truth of tho r^'iso, tfiat 
I choo.so to livo, till it. .nhould ploa.so the Hovor(;igri 
\)('.<)\>\(', \() ' f>v(;rtur/i, till thr^y whoH'; ri^hl it. \h n\\<)\\\({ 
jud;.^(;.' 'i'ho r;vidonr-,(;, as it. roHf)Cct,H t.ho <-AXi;(X of tho 
art of con^^rcHH on tho iijdir;iary HyHtorn, wr>«jld l>o juHt. 
a.s grf;at., 1 t,hird< tho Karrio-, if I whould employ rnyhcIF 
in [)rarJ,ir-(;, as I rnuHt. ; (or I hnvo r:onsidorf;d (>r.'i<-.tir-,e 
at the har efjunlly irn[)ro[>or in a, eirr.uit judj/o, a.s ad- 
rriinistf:rin^^ justir-.r; on the herifJi. \r;ither i.s ineorn- 
(Kitihlo. hut hoth iinprofjor, if the emolument:-; of the 
offif;e had not fjeen tal';(;n from it. Supfjose some of 
your(iroton [patriots should take it into tfif;ir wise and 
patriotif. hends, that, it, would he doiii;.^ .somethin;/ for 
tfic; (/ood of tfic; whole, to turn you out of your dwell- 
inj,^ in some violent storm, and, hy fV*ree, fiold yoii 
f>ut; would you think it ne-f.es.';ary, in order to show 
th;i.t you thou;.dit the whoh- proeeedinj_^ illf;^^al, to rr> 
rnain in the hij_diw;iy as ne-ar a.s you eould, and suffer 



154 LIFK OF JUDOK SMITil. 

a drenching as well as cx})ulsion ? Would it weaken 
your lille, in the opinion of others, or betray any 
want of confidence in it on your part, if you were to 
take the earhest opi)ortunity of obtaining the best 
shelter you could, and leave it to the })roper tribunal 
to settle the question of right? I have heard of cler- 
gymen, who, when denied entrance into their pulpits, 
have thouglit it iK^cessary, in order to keep up their 
claim to salary, lo wear a band and black gown on 
Sundays; and some have thought it neci^ssary to hold 
forth, whether they had any hearers or not, as near the 
meeting-house door as possible. I do not pretend to 
have thought much, and, as you will readily perceive, 
I have not thought seriously on this subject. If ac- 
cepting an ollice in the state would be a vacating the 
ollice under the United States, then I conceive your 
opinion well founded ; otherwise, I do not feel the 
force of the observation's contained in your obliging 
letter. And certainly, as they come from two per- 
sons I have always been in the habit of esteeming, I 
feel dis[)osed fully to appreciate them." 

An addition was made to the salary of the chief 
justice. By an act of the legislature, (ISth of June, 
180'2,) it was raised from eight hundred and tifty to 
a thousand dollars. The following letter to Governor 
Gilman, is dated I3th August, 180r2. "Sir: Con- 
trary to my first determination, I have at length con- 
cluded to accept of the ollice of chief justice, and to 
resign that of judge of probate. The principal ob- 
jection I liave had to this acceptance, resjiects the 
salary annexed to the ollice, which I have thought, 
and still think inadequate to the duties. It is with 



LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 155 

great reluctance I liavc formed this dctcrrniiiation, 
and I have a strong presentiment that I sJiall repent 
it. I mention this that I may avoid tlie im[)utation 
of fickleness, in case on trial I should find it to be 
my duty to resign it." 

Upon trial he was, as he had anticipated, entirely 
convinced of the inadequacy of the compensation, 
and in June, 1804, addressed to the two branches of 
the legislature a letter, containing suggestions which 
deserve to be seriously considered by those who are 
engaged in legislating on this delicate and important 
subject. If, through the smallness of the salary, com- 
petent men are excluded from the office, and the 
bench is made a sort of public asylum for those who 
have not talent or industry enough to support them- 
selves at the bar, for every dollar that is saved, hun- 
dreds will be lost to the community. The delays 
occasioned by unskilful management, the needless 
continuance of actions, the multiplication of law-suits 
growing out of the uncertainty of the law in the hands 
of those who do not understand its principles, and 
the consequently increased expense of jurymen and 
witnesses, must add indefinitely to the cost. And 
the injury is one which falls with peculiar severity 
upon the poor, who must look for protection to an 
able and impartial court ; since with a feeble court it 
will be in the power of the rich to secure the most 
ingenious advocates, and to worry out a poor adver- 
sary by the obstacles, which a skilful lawyer may 
throw in the Way of an unskilful judge, to obstruct 
or turn aside the course of justice. But where the 
judges are from the ablest members of the profession, 



1 :>(; 



\.\v\: ov .M \M\\: 



the |H>i>r iu;iii. who caw alloid {o (Mnj>lov none Inil 
woak or iiu^\|>oriiMi('i\l i'ouiiS(>l. and w ho s(Umus n^uly 
to l>o nushod hy tho uiuu|ual wtMj^ht ol' n |>o\V(m1ii1 
adviMsarv al tho l>ar. will liiul upon th(^ IxMU'h an 
aihocali^ ^^ ho will rosfort^ thi^ halaiuw aiul socurt^ to 
liim his rights, li is sliaiii;(\ tluMiMoiv, that it should 
so otUMi he consitl(Mt^(l a popular nu^asun^ to nuluot^ 
tho t'ouipiMisalioii o[ \\u\txcii. 

*' To iho pit^sidtMit ol' tho soiiat(\ I'AtMtM-. (>th .luMt\ 
ISOl. Sir: Whon 1 aftn^pttul tlu^ ollico o[' c\\'w( 
justiot\ 1 was not so \aiu as to iiua^iiu^ that 1 pos- 
sosstnl suitabK^ (|ualitic'atious I'or an ollict^ oi' so nuich 
iini>ortaniH\ At tlu^ sauu^ tiint^ I viinvod tho coui- 
pousation anuoxod to it as inado(iuatt\ it' its dutii\s 
woro poil\>riui\l in any ukiiuum- as thov oui^ht to bo. 
l^ut haviuLi lor s(MU(^ tinu^ IxMoit^ \v(\ \\\c bar. 1 was 
inducvil to uiakc^ tho i^piaiincMit. Sullii-itMit tinio 
has now olapsod lor that puriH)so. 1 \\[\\c cuAviwowd 
faithfully to perform my duty ; 1 have span^l no la- 
bor or [Kiins, but have wholly tlovottul nivst^lf to tho 
business oi' \\\c t^lliee, and \c{ 1 am siMisibK> that tho 
perfornianee has been t^xtrcMuely impialeet. It has 
been far, vtMy far below my own wisln s. r>ut what- 
ever c^pinion may be I'ormi^l on this sub|(H-t, 1 am 
constrained to observe, that 1 hav(^ I'ound tlu* com- 
pensation so inade(|uati\ that I eannot loni4(M- KMain 
tlu^ olliei\ it has hccw my lorluiu^ to aeijuirt^ but 
little property. l'\>r the l)est j>art oi' the last sixtiuMi 
years, I have hvcu a V(My laborious and assitluous, 
thouj^h viMy unimportant servant o( \\\c public ; and, 
whattntM* other advanlai;(\s may hv supposed to have 
flowed Irom tlK\se em}>loyments, they havi^ not proved 



r.fiK OF .n:if(,E svirrif. 17)1 

f)rofil.il)l<; ro rru; in ;i ()f:r:ui)iriry (joint, of" \ir.w. At. 
no |»f;riofl of my lifo }i;iv'0 I Loon ;i.nxions to ;jf,(|uiro 
f>ro[>crt.y. A f:orfif)ot(;nt, sijf>f>ort. is fill I luivf; flosirod, 
or ycA. (lorsirf;, ;jm(J for tli.'it I fnu.st .still do-ponrl Mfjon 
fny rl.iily 1,'ihor. Ilavin;.^ l*<;on from tlio h;ir for nfj- 
ward.s of tlir(;o yoarSj I profor r^ontinuin^^ in rny [>rr;- 
Hf;nt. oflioo, to rot.(irnin;_^ .'i;,^Jiiri to ific; pnjr,tir:o. Hut 
if tho r,r>m[)f;riH?it,ion ho not, in somo way muiU; <:(\\r,y\ 
to tlif; ar.tijfil oxf>onHfj of" livin^.% tlif;r(; is no altornal.ivo 
loft. f must yiold to tlio diclatos of* nr;f:f;Hsity. 'J'fifi 
offioo will) wliirji I Iiav(; f>oori lionorf.cJ, I holiovo to 
\)(i of Kufliciont im[>ortanf:o \.<> rrif;rit a (Jf^cont rnain- 
Icnarico. 1 know it Iujs hf.*or« imnj^^irjorl f)y some; tfint 
ilH (Jiitio'H rc(juiro [>iit a. portion oi tlio tirno of" tfjr; 
pCTHon holding it, and that a f:on.si(Jr;ral>lf; fjart may 
ho dcvoto(J to otlior pursuits. 1 concoivo this to Ik; 
a rrjistakcri opinion. A judge; must annufjily travol, 
on tho r:ircuitH as ificy aro now ostahlisfiod, upwards 
of" sf;Vf;ri hundred rnilos, and l>o ahsont from tiis fam- 
ily rioar fiajf tho yonr. In cvory county, anrj at ovory 
term, cjucHtions arise wfiich aro f>oth diffir^nlt and 
im[)ortant. 'I'o delay the jury, the witnesses, and 
all those who havr; husines.s at the court, till these 
difficulf (jUf;stior)S ;ire Sf;ttlf;d, wouhi he ;j,tten<led with 
p^reat exj>ense and inr,r>rjvenience. It must f>e ohvi- 
ous, on a moment's reflection, that this k\(i<\ of husi- 
nesH can f)e hotter done in the vac;ition, when the 
judg(;s ar(; relieved from the hurry and hustle of 
court, and frorr» tin; fatir.Mir; attending tfje fiearing a 
multi[>licity of causr;s, and when they can have ar;cesH 
to su(-h hooks and p;i[)ers as m;iy l;e ):>rofitahly con- 
Hulted. In this way, and I will venture to say in 
14 



158 MKK OV .UIXJK SMITH, 

tills way 0))Ju. C'AU new ;iiul ditlicMill (iiu^stions ulurh 
daily nrisi^ in \\\c co\iv\^. ho stMtltHl in a ukiuium- lioii- 
orahlo to the roiirl. or satist'atMorv io \\\c partitas. In 
this way dooisions may ho ma(l(\ \ylurh >yill S(Myt^ as 
nilos lor (liHMtliiiij similar (}m^s(ious as tlu\y ariso, in 
tut mo causes, aiul tho hny \yill booomo. what it ou^lit 
to bo in oyory tVoo stato. a kuo\yn ruK^ ot' otrnduot. 
So strongl) am 1 im[M(\^si\l \Mlh tho utility ol* this 
courso of procoodiui^-. that I \Aill yiMituro to say. that 
lot a jmluo sot out >yiih oy(M- so lar^jt^ a stork o( kuow- 
lodiio, and Km his natural abilitit\^ Ix^ t^ytM- so j.;(>od. 
still \\c \\\\\ moot \yith many hard tiut^sliiMis. \oo tlilli- 
cult to bo sohoii on tho oirouit : iiuc^stit>us \yhioh \\ ill 
ro(]uiro both timo and oonsiiloration. and alVord sulli- 
ciont iMuploAim^nt tlnrin^ tlu^ yaoation. llt^ will lind 
it nsot'ul to royiso all opinions t\>rmod in i^>urt. as woU 
as to inyosli^•ato (]uostions ns(My(\l. Ib^ will tind it 
nooossary to ston^ his mind witli kno\\l(>di:(> of tlu^ 
iisaiAOs. customs and history ol' his own country, with 
the opinions aiul decisions ot* those who haye ixonc 
before him. and to ayail himsidl' of tlu^ kno\yl(Hli;t^ and 
experience of the wise and tlu^ i^ooil of (^yiM y ai^o and 
country. If he dot\s not pursue this course, his judi- 
cial opinions ^^ ill lu^t ho resp(M"tablt\ and of course 
they will not 1)0 resptHMod. 'Vhc law will bt^ un- 
known, and conse(]ueutly uncertain. iXothini; will 
be settled on a tirm and solid basis — cytMythiui; will 
be in a state o( tluctuation. This will he a iVuitfuI 
source of litigation, and to this it is in part to l>e 
ascribed that in some stati\s, 1 will not mention our 
own, tliert^ are ten times as many lawsuits in pro- 
portion to the number and wealth o( the inhabitants, 



TJKK OK JI]IK;K SVHTff. 1.01) 

UH ill others. I can assuro you, sir, ifn[)(;rr«;c,lly nn 
tlio duties of friy ollico liavo been discharged, fatid 
no ina,n ean Ix; more H(;nHil>le of this iniperfeelion 
llian I atn,) I fiavf; [)een for the last, thref; years as 
irmch oc(MJ|>ie<l out of eourt, in th(; way I have nie,n- 
tioncd, as I hav(; Ijeen en^^a^(;(l in eourt. The vaea- 
tiori has not, he(;n a season of h^isure to me, and 1 
cannot helj) flatlering myself that l>y these means, in 
some small (Jef^re(;, mor(; busifi(;Ks has h(;(;n done and 
considerable expense saved, both to the f>uf)lie and 
to the parti(;s. The erinstitution has, in my opinion, 
wisely prohibited a jud^e of tfie su()erior court from 
iiolding any other otiice ; because it considers him as 
fully occu()i(;d. I cN'in hardly persuade; mys(;lf that a 
^ood jud^^e, while in ofliee, will be tit for anything 
else, ilis mind will be wholly en^^rossed with the 
business of his offir.e, and when that is the casf;, he 
will <l(,rivf; n(;ither [>leasure nor a(ivanta;-^e from other 
f)ursuits. 

" If there is a,tiy one who ima|.^iries that this; o/fiee 
does fif)t refjiiire the r:l(>s(;st attention, and the most 
assiduous and constant applir;ation, 1 must refer him 
to those judges in the different states, who have 
be(;n examples of what I rer,ornmend. This office 
re(juirf;s health, thou^di it has no tendency to j_mv(; or 
continiK.' it. It re(juirr;s the best f>art, not the dre^s 
of life. The em[)loyrnent of a judj^^e is a, business 
that cannot be slit^'htf'<l. Jt is an un[)leasant em- 
ployment ; he has to contend with ignorance, knav- 
ery, and with prejudir-e — the |)rf;jijdice which cvftry 
man feels, in favor of his own cause. lie ar:ts in 
public, and every {)art of his conduct is op(;ri to ol>- 



100 LIFE OF .TTDCF, SMITH. 

servation. If he coniinit any improper act. he is 
sure to be detected and exposed : if he is ii^iiorant, 
it is impossible it should be concealed, lie must not 
expect popularity : he whose ex{>ress duty it is to 
deal out justice to others, nuist not expect justice 
liimselt'. The losing party is under a stroui^- tempta- 
tion to arraign his knowledge or his impartiality. In 
short, his situation may be compared to that of a 
sentinel, who is always on duty in the face of the 
enemy. Such is my opinion of the arduous em- 
ployment of a judge, that I am fully persuaded that 
ten or twelve years' faithful performance of its duties, 
such as they are in this state, will wear out the best 
constitution, and leave the man, if it leaves him life, 
nothing but the comfortable reflection arising from 
a conscientious discharge of duty. If there is any 
person who entertains an opinion that the oiTu e does 
not require professional skill, I shall hardly be per- 
suaded that he has ever looked into a court of jus- 
tice, or bestowed a moment's reflection on the sub- 
ject. 

'' Those whose lot it has been to prosecute or de- 
fend their just rights, when invaded, surely are of a 
diflerent opinion. Is there any one who seriously 
believes that honesty and integrity are all that are 
necessary in an advocate at the bar ? AVhere is the 
man who would think himself or his cause safe with 
an hop.est lawyer, destitute of skill in his })rofession, 
while his adversary was aided with counsel possess- 
ing superior knowledge, if the judge was deficient 
in legal information ? Would he feel no aj^prehen- 
sion lest the superior talents of the advocate should 



LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. IGI 

mislead the judge, however upright his intentions ? 
Is honesty, in common life, a sufficient protection 
against cunning and talents, and is the law a science 
where a man may become a proficient without 
study or application ? If you require professional 
knowledge in an advocate, why not in a judge ? It 
is generally supposed that there is one side in a court 
of justice, who have an interest in perverting the 
law and confounding right — an interest in obscur- 
ing the cause, instead of enlightening the court. If 
this be correct, and if the judge has no resources of 
his own, how is he to detect and expose such at- 
tempts to mislead his judgment ? Is it not absurd 
that a judge, when seated on the bench to dispense 
justice according to law, should on all occasions be 
under the necessity of learning from the bar what 
the law is ? Is it not unseemly, that the people 
should in a court of justice look up to the bar, and 
down upon the bench ? Will parties feel satisfied 
with the decision of their causes, if they have not 
the fullest confidence in the knowledge, as well as in 
the integrity of the court ? In these observations I 
certainly mean no reflection on the bar. So far from 
entertaining prejudices against the profession, it is 
natural to suppose that, as an order of men, I fiighly 
respect and esteem them. But still I maintain, that 
in the order of things, judges should not be less 
skilled in the principles of law, than the advocates 
who manage the causes at the bar. And yet I be- 
lieve this superiority in the advocate will always 
exist, as long as the one employment gives an honor- 
able support, and the other scarcely afTords a scanty 
subsistence. 

14* 



I(>'i MKK OF .11 IXiK SAUTII. 

" One would think i( would he llio policy of 
iho jMihlir to iiivitt\ l)v holding- (Mit siiil;ihl(> (mi- 
coiuMiAtMiuMit. tlio most (MuiiuMit nt tli(* har or in tiu^ 
stato, thoso ot' tho WuvcM cUiunc\vv Uo\\\ lor talcMits 
and int(\mity. to a si\it on tlu^ IxMudi. TIkmi^ \\(M0 
at a lato piMiod. livini^', ton poisons who had rosi^iuMl. 
ami two who di^dinod tlu^ otiioo ol' judiro ol' the 
suptMior court. Throt^ [uc \i\\v\\ dvccixsal. Since 
the K^vohition the jutli;(\s ol" the superior court, upon 
an av(Mai:r(\ hav(^ lu^ld the t>l]ici^ h^ss than live years. 
C'an llieit^ ho InMler t^yidtMict^ that tlu^ (Muoluinents 
iwc not (u>nsider((l as achniuali^ to tlu^ duties? While 
a Hiili;t^ holds tht^ ollici^ no more than tiyi^ yiwrs, 
haye we nmeh rc^ison to (^xjhhM nnil'ormity in (ie- 
cisions ? \)o we not lose all the hentMils llowiui; 
from exptMicMiee ? 

" .\s to the dimiit>- ot' tht^ ollic(\ I do not wish 
tor any salary on that account. I helic^yi^ it is with 
this, as \yith eyery other olVuv^ in the stat(\ tlu^ honor 
and diLvnity ot' tlu^ othce (U^jhmhI altoi^ether on the 
inanntM- in \yhich its dutii^s ar(^ piMlorminl. It is the 
importance of the o'lice \yhich re(|uir(\s salary, not 
its dii^nity. It may, lu>w{^yer, he correct t^nou^h to 
say, that tlu^ honor aiul dignity of tlu^ stat(\ as \y(^ll 
as the true inttMi^st of the peo}>l(\ rin|uir(* that the 
juii^ACJ^ of the supiM-ior C(Mu t should ho neitluM- indi- 
irent nor (h^pcMident. 1 haye thus Uxkou tlu* lihtMty 
to nuMition some o{' \hv many considerations which 
haye occurred to my mind, as reasons \yijy the com- 
pensation to th(^ olhce I now hold should be rendered 
more ade(|uate to its dutit>s. 

" If thes(\ witii many othcMs that \yill occur to (^yery 



fjKK OF jrjfx.r: SMirfr. I f J.'i 

n\('.tr\})(',r, .should \}(: <\(.<ii\('(\ of ,sijnic;i(;rit ifnf)f)rf;jrK-/!, 
tf) f.'ill t(i(; uifcntion of tin; Icj^islntiiro to thr; K(if)jf;ct., 
llifiy will (loiil)tl()SH rcicoivo all tin; ronsidcralioM tlifjy 
doH(;rvo. Ah I liavo f!X[)roKS(;(l my Hcntirnoiits wilfi 
candor firifl rrard<rif;ss on this Mnf)If:aKant, Hnl)if;c,t, f in- 
dulge llif; ho[)f; Ih.'it lli<;y will ho cnrididly rccc'wcd. 
Tf, in tti(; opinion of thf; Ic^^ishdun;, the [)ijl)lir. intf;rf;st 
rc^niiros fnrtlif;r f)r*)visif)n for the of}i(;f; whif-h I ;it prr;- 
HCMit hold, I shnll rcjoir-c. 'V\\r(i(i ycjirs' pr;if;tirf; fias 
rrjadf; tfio duti(;s rnoro o'isy to rrir;, find I feci that I 
am af)f)roa(;hin^ tfjat [)f!riod r>f life, wficri thcj em- 
ployment of ;i(lvor;itin;^^ e.aiises at the l)?ir hf;f,omf;s 
irksome; ;ind nn))le,'is:irit, Ff, r)n the contrnry, it 
sliould l)f; thr)n^dit that ;im[)le f)roviHion is already 
mnde for the otfiee, I sh.'ill rheerfnily ;iefjni(,see. 
'I'here may f)f;, in the stntf;, [)r;rsonH of snfliejent for- 
tune to en;if)h; thf;m to m;d<e a saerifiee which my 
eirfjimst;inr;es will fiot;dlow. Donhtless there Jire me-n 
of suflieieTit patriotism to indur;e them to undertnkf; a 
vcTy ;irdnoiis ntid difliriilt, oflir-.e ; \ nm very sure tfiat 
many rrwiy he* found eve-ry w;iy better (ju;difie<l thfin 
I am. [ shall tresjjass no lon^^er on your patience 
than to rfjquest that you wr)uld hnve the goodn(,'HS to 
lay this letter l)efore tlu; horK)r;if>lf; body over which 
you preside. I fiave marie a similar communication 
to the; house of ropresf;ntatives. I will ordy add that 
an early expression of the will of the legislature on 
this suhjciet, as it will determine ttie future course of 
my life, will F)e esteemed as a great favor. I have 
the honor to be, witti the greatest respfict, sir, your 
most obedient servant. .1. S." 

On the 15th of .fune;, .ludgf; Smitfi wrote in confi- 



iUmux^ to his fritMU^ John 0, OlmiuU^rhun, a nu inlvr 
v>f iho K>rt?ilatU!x> : *' I Ikhyo jujsil lu^iiixi llmt iIumv lias 
Ihvu a oottin^nitv on inv ItMfor to iho ivvo l\ous^\«i. 
and i!\ai ihov |m\>|hv<t^ ivjHHiinii tiiuvn Imnili^ni <lv>l- 
kn-i, U wouKi Imvo Uvn in\pn>|HT to havo nanu d 
any sum in n\y l^^nununioation to tho Uxislatuiw I 
am sausfu\i ^viih thai ^m^jHV'JiM, hul anythinu loss 
wouKl not ansuvr my pur}HV<i\ \ havo kopt itxU'' 
W a^xxnuiis of my oxjvnst^s sinoo I oan»o to l\\t^tor» 
anil u|H>n an avonvi:x\ thoy havo ovv^tHnioti twolvo 
huniirxni dollars a yoar. 1 J.i> not lako into tho 
oaloulation n\y oxjHMist^s on tho oiixniil. which havo 
anmially oxivoiiod thi^v lunuiivd dollars, This lat- 
ter suin must bo doduotod t"i\>m tho sidary, and tho 
renmindor is tho roal ov^mponsation. This mil Ku^^ly 
dotrav tlio o\|vnscs of niv t'annlv. Tho hulo 1 am 
now worth is ahxwily tvH> small to 1« ;nc' as thi^ solo 
liopondonot" ot" nn wilV and ohiKlion. » Iumi 1 ;>> from 
thorn. CmhI knows whon that will Ih\ It is. ptM- 
haps. an t^>oiit at iu> m^wt ilistanoo ; at any rato. it 
must happiMi in a tow yoars. I i annot In ar lo sco 
this Ittlo fund iluninish as I wcai out. I nuntiou 
thoso thiut^s bv >va\ ot' apoKvi:\ \ov saMU;; that I 
woulil ha\t' ^ ou or somo oiIum i>t my tViiMuls. lu 
caso thotx' shouKi bt^ a ilispv>sitii>u to ^raiit sv^mo- 
thiui:'. but loss than titloou huiultiHl iK^llars. \^si^ 
as to KwM^ mo tw oho lmnilit\l ilollars nol.^ to 
doolaro m \u\ boluill". that I i-amu>t aooi^pt it. anil 
that I would not t^i\i^ tht^ U\>^islatnri^ any liulluM- tiou- 
blo on my aooiMint. I ha\c^ not takon this su^p with- 
out matmo nMlootuMi anil oonsuloialion. It would 
mortitv mo it tlio lomslatuii' should think mo alto- 



^i:\\\f:r (JfiWOrtfi/ of tfir; (tihff; \ \if;\(\. \>u\. I r>'jri \^;nr 
(',v*Ai thiH rnort,ifi<-.;»t,iori \}*X\(;r tfi;iri f>ovcrty ;irirj rjr;- 
\>4;U<\('\H:*;. \ f»/'iV^; fjitfiOff/; <:f\(\(;U.Vf>r('A t/> fJCt my 
Hrnal) f^Jirt. on t.fi<; Hty'j^^<; of lifV; \tfKi(;u,i\y^ Jifid, with tho 
iimnUtui-A: u\' ficavcn, f will r»ot. fW^itiicj-, iUf-, \ffiMl by 
Iho futur^;. f will try t/> ^^^;t. an houf-M \\vMi<><><\ at. 
l}i(; hfir, ;irifl f do not (UM\mr^'^ 

\\*Sur<', Mr. (lUmuSx-Msu r*/'j-A\f:<\ tfii« Irjitcr, a rr;f</>- 
liition \i',y(\ ])UH»fj\ tho fiOfiH^; f>y a vot/; of ono \t\in(\rf'A 
and onf; to fifty -mo von, and tfif; Hcnato hy a voto of 
('\i'.y(\\ to orj<;j fixing tfio Halary of ific Hon. .f<;r<;rni;jh 
Hniith at i'liU-j-fi f.iindroH dollars a yr^ar, during liiM 
cjyftUfiniitic/: in tfjo office (A' (:\i'uA' jhhUcj-. 'J'hin rcH^>^ 
lijfiofi waH thf; rnor<; \\<>U(>riy\)\i', both t/i fiim and lr> 
tfir;rn, from th<; far.t tfiat a rtmytnty of the lo^^inlaturo 
w<;r': of>j)OH<;d to tfic politir>'j,l principloM. which fjo w?j.«j 

\tO,ri'«,(;l\y wr;J| knOWn t/> \)r<)U/:iH, 

Of) fir-it r/}u\\u^ U) the office in 1^02, Jud^^e Smith 
^* rorlc tfic r:irctiit " with .f nd^^CH Vurrur and lAvf-.r- 
UKtrc, urui in .Strafford. llo<:kinf.di?jfn and lii\\H\)f>- 
roiif.d). dc'Jincd Uik'ui'/ any ucAivf; \)urV \\\ \\\i; trial of 
cjiiMHCM. .Uu\</<: Farrar, from whom f fjavo the ar> 
ry>iint, attribiiterj it f>artly t/> tJjc unwillin^aiCXH of the 
chief ju ;tir:c to t;ikc fiiH pl?j/:/; at OfK:/;, aU;ve thrj^f; 
who wcrr; fiiH Kcniorn in office, and partly to hi'-< diffi- 
dence about iniHUfifj fjirnHelf to act, fK;fore he conld 
feel at riane in hi:-^, new Hitnation. frj ('\i</".\nrf; county 
an irrif^ortant r-aune wan to be tried, wfjicii fiarj <:x<aUa{ 
a good deal of \u\(:r<-9X, and wfjich had already been 
tried at three difrf;rent timen, without either the court 
or tfie jury hr;if|f/ ;j},j<; to a^/ree, it bein^^ tfien tfie 
practirx of all the judges who chos/; it to Hiim up to tfic 



jury, so liiat l!io jiui^vs inii^ht vlilVor on iho law ot" 
iho oaso. as woll as tho jury on iho taots. It NNas 
the oaso ot" l.ynuiu anil Foster. JudiJ^o l^looti Umui; 
a |\\rishionor of Fostor. iho n\inisior of C^harlosiown. 
had doolinod ^ivini^- any opinion, and tho Jud^ios I'ar- 
rar and l.ivonnoro. I)ad at each ot' tho ditUuMU trials, 
charuvd tho jury on opposite sidos. At Anihorst. 
thert^tort\ they agrtvd botwoon thonisolvos that ihov 
would have notlnn^- to do with it at tho no\t trial, 
but \>ould loavo it ontiivly to tho ohiot" iusiiot\ ami 
on ihoir way to Koono. told him that ho nnist tako it 
into his own lunuis. Wc was a i:ood iloal uiomhI, 
and with izroat rohiotanoo assontoii. Tho trial lastod 
two days, riorn^pont I'dwariis. tlu n a \orv tlistin- 
guishod lawyer ot* Oonnootiout, appeared tor \\\c 
plaintitr. while the detendant was represented! bv Ihmi- 
jannn West, ot' Charlestown, "one ot" the most sue 
oesst'nl advoeates." says Mr. \\'ebster. ** it" woi the 
most sneeesst"ul. betore a jury, that ever praetised in 
the eourtsot" New Hampshire: a [htsou who. to singu- 
lar powers ot" popular lo^ie and persuasion, aildiul the 
weight ot" the utmost pinity aiui rc^speetability ot" pri- 
vate eharaeter : and one who, it" he luui not alwavs 
ret"used jniblie otiiee. eonld not have t'ailed to make 
a ticure in the national eouneils, into whieh he de- 
elinoil enteriui; at'ter beinu eleeted by his t'ellow-eiti- 
zens a representative in eonuress." ' Jmli^e Snulh 



' Thoro wns no man whom .Tiut^v Smith, down to tho closo ot his \\\\\ 
remcmboroii with a nu>ro alfootionalo rosi^ot. lie spoko ot" hini as ox- 
collinvi at tho har. partionhirly in tho narration ot taots In l!>o oaso of 
I.yman and Fostor. ^Ir. Wost spoko of tlio i>huntitr as a rioh man. who 
could send into unothor stato for tho aMost advooalv\ while his olionl, 



LltK OK .H:h(,y. '.MITif. J 07 

itr!/nu\<:ni. i)tn\ iJj'; rj';;(t. fj;i,y. on ri.-,ifj^' in court to ?.^ivo 
hiH clum//:, wliic.li \\it.(\ \)<:<:ii filrnoht. ofjtjroly wriW-Ai 
out, fj'; wjjH HO u//\\uX(;<\, and fii-s Ijand tr<:f(i\)\fji ho 
fniirfj. iJi^it ljf; f^oul'j rjot Ijold hi-; pu[><;r-,. t>ijt wjjii 
obliged to Kit (Jowrj. jjjjfi fJf;ljvr;r it from hin K^Jit : a 
pnicAicj: wliif^h fjr; JilvvayH ui'U^rwurdH (•/)nUnn(:<\, and 
whirJi li;j '-', }>';f;fi k';p) lJf> hy fji.H Hijr;cf;h.-;orH. Jn thin 
ch;i.rr/<; lio firnt urged a /naxirn on wliicfi he ulwuyn 
afterwjirfjH laid great HlreMH, tijat in civil iw.iWcAn it k 
often of greater eonr.efjijf;nr:e- tfiat a caiis/i U; decided, 
tlifjn that it he decided rigfjt. 'J'he jury agreed in 
finding a verdict f<>r tfje defendant. 

i'Vorrj the tirrje vvlie-n lie eritered ufjorj Ijis office in 
1802, till he left it in 1809, Judge Smith gave him- 
Helf to it with fiin wfiole lieart. He went through 
nearly tfie v/fiole circuit of tlie htiite twi^;/; a year, 
tnj veiling over r<>adM often ho fjad, that fje could go 
only on fiornehack, and hridgen, of which, many yearn 
afterwarrJH, he Hairl tfiat lie rernernher^;^! well their 
confhtiori when fje had occasion to pa.-.H them ; -'and 

" th« jw;or tniu'iHUrr of a wuntry U<wri, wa» ohVi'^tui U> put up with Huch 
roon«<;I »/'< h#j r^;ulH (f';t arn/iO{< tiin own poor |:wri*.hiofjcr«." The word« 
witt*t have i,cMu *;H<'.cAivti, U> \,t; Tt',tu<;tu\f<:o:d now, afUr ttic laj>v; of more 
ttian fijrly yfrarn, Th<y w«;rc f<;{/<;at<rd t/^ rn'; by Or, A/ooh TwJV;h/;ll, 
of K':';n';. Ju'Jj^'; Smith u':*;'! to j-ay, that Mr. W<;*t. v/hon a wirj .,w»;r, 
f|M<j«tioninj( him r»'Mjfif:Uti^ two la/Ji*** of ttcfir jji/ypiaintancft, h».' r<'.]»Vu'A, 
that thfc on<i " lovwJ lr> wait ujMni hrjr irUnuU, the oth<.'r t/> he whliUA on hy 
th<:tn." Mr, W*,'*it urarr'n-il lU<: i'oniif'.r; lh<f othf:r alno wut rnarri<;d, and 
thf; rcxult of th«; two rnarriagcM, Judj^** Smith thou'^ht, *,hov/<;d fh'; v/i»i- 
di/in of hiM tnhu<i'H choic*;. 

' Thi-i, likf: <;vc'ry other v*iry point<;d <'.x\trt:>.h'u>u, tnuHt \,i-, Tf-cMivcA^ sut 
it unrlouht<;d)y watj \,y Jtulf^t: Hmith, v/ilh >»//rnr' qualification. "It 
KiiouW he," »ayH a hi(<h legal authority, "in civil chuch ttome rink hari 
better he run of rJecidinjj a caune wror/j^, rather than not to decide it at 
all. or even very unreahonafJy to protra^;l ttie controversy." 



1 68 LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 

certainly," he aiUlod, " he must have been destitute 
of pietv, who did not return tliauks to Providence, 
when he found himself and his horse safe on the fur- 
ther side." When he came home, worn down by a 
laborious circuit, he usually refreshed himself for a 
week or two^ by reading novels, or any other species 
of light literature that might be within his reach. 
The remainder of his vacation was spent in constant 
application to the severe studies of his profession, re- 
viewing his decisions, examining legal questions on 
points reserved for the purpose, extending his know- 
ledge to the less frequented departments of the law, 
enriching his mind widi the principles of legal sci- 
ence, to be drawn from theological investigations, or 
an enlarged acquaintance with history, and doing all 
this with reference to a better system of legal prac- 
tice and a better administration of justice, lie went 
scarcely at all into society, and sometimes for weeks 
was hardly seen without the doors of his own house. 
Almost his only relaxation was with his own family. 
It is impossible for those who did not know him in 
his own house, to have any idea how much amuse- 
ment he could extract from the most trilling events ; 
and how much incidents, which others leave as un- 
worthy of notice, were made to contribute to the 
animation and real enjoyment of the whole house- 
hold, while they had no small share of intiuence in 
preserving the vigor and elasticity of his constitution. 
It was a saying of Paley, that " he who is not a fool 
half the time, is a fool all the time." And the reader 
probably remembers the story of Robert Hall, who, 
on being reproached by a very dull preacher with 



LtFK OF JIJD(U': SMITH. ] G9 

llie exclamation, " IIovv can a man who prcaclics like 
you, talk in so trifling a manner?" replied, *' There, 
brother, is tfie difference between ns ; you talk your 
nonsense in the pulpit, I talk mine out of it." Judge 
Smith used often to tell, with great zest, the story of 
Dr. South, 1 think, who, in the midst of a frolic, see- 
ing an accjuaintance a[)pr()aching, exclaimed, " Stop, 
we must be grave now, there is a fool coming." 
Certainly no one without a true relish, not only for 
wit, but for fun, can at all a[)preciate Judge Smith's 
character, or fully understand even his more serious 
conversation and writings. His humor, like the foam 
and phosphoric light in the wake of a man-of-war, 
often marked the progress of his mind through sub- 
jects the most profound, and in his moments of re- 
laxation it burst out and flashed in all manner of antic 
and fantastic shapes. Jle would, for instance, amuse 
liimself and family, by imagining them in strange 
situations, with j)('Oj)le [)erhaps the most incongruous, 
and then would carry on, with the drollest effect, 
long conversations between the persons thus gro- 
tesquely brought together. Sometimes the assumed 
names would be preserved, and the farce or romance 
kept up for weeks together, as if it were a fact con- 
nected with their daily life.' 

1 The most undignified instance of his love of fun, tliat hns come to my 
knowledge, was told me by the Hon. Levi Wnndlinry. An old physician, 
imprisoned in Exeter for debt, was in the habit of making frequent and 
long calls on Judge Smith, whose house, unfortunately, was within the 
limits of the jail. One afternoon, the judge, seeing his venerable frUind 
coming, threw himself, as if in great pain, on the floor, and word was ta- 
ken to the door that he could see no one. The doctor, suspecting how the 
matter w:is,said he could not possibly abandon his friend at Ruch a time, 
and, rushing into the room, tlircw himself down by his side. The ajjpli- 
15 



170 LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 

If there was anything in which he showed himself 
a man of genius, it was in the humor which flashed out 
through every feature of his mind and face. In the 
tone of his voice, the roguish play about his mouth, 
and the fire of his eye, there was an undefinable 
something which gave reUef to a dry discussion, and 
imparted at least a momentary zest to expressions, 
whicli might, otherwise, have fallen lifeless from his 
lips. He did not require wit or intellectual superi- 
ority in his daily associates. He was always fond of 
the society of ladies, and no one could respect them 
more than he ; but the gentle and amiable qualities, 
united with intelligence and good sense, were what 
most en^asfed his ati'ections. It miidit be said of him, 
as of Lord Mansfield, that ^^ his professional labors 
were great, and it was natural that he should resort 
to society more for relaxation and rest of mind, than 
for anything that could put him upon fresh exertions. 
Even dulness, so long as it was accompanied with 
placidity, was no absolute disrccommendation of his 
private hours ; it was a kind of cushion to his under- 
standing." 

These, however, were but moments of respite 
from severe labor. The only regular exercise that 
he took, was in sawing, splitting, and bringing in the 
wood for his fire ; employments which he kej^t up 
till the last years of his life, and which he always 
performed with great exactness. These things un- 
doubtedly contributed much to the soundness both of 
his body and mind, but he was taxing his constitu- 

cation was perfectly successful, and the patient was soon able to sit up ; 
but the physician, yeaa'/ig- a relapse, continued with him till evening. 



LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 171 

tion beyond liis strength. His friends saw that he 
was wearing himself out, and he evidently thought 
that his life must be a short one. Ilis letters often 
speak of this, and sometimes, though very seldom, 
show something of the low spirits that are connected 
with disease.' They furnish little information re- 
specting his professional pursuits ; but afford glimpses 
of his peculiar mode of thought and feeling, as in 
the following extracts from letters to William Plum- 
er, then a senator in congress, and afterwards gov- 
ernor of New Hampshire. 

Exeter, November 21, 1803. " My dear friend : 
I received yours of the 3d of November, a (aw days 
ago. I am much better for the fall circuit. This I 
ascribe to my devoting myself less to the business of 
the court than usual, and more to riding on horse- 
back. I do not intend to engage in any law study 
this vacation, as I am determined not to think much, 
and yet abhor idleness as much as nature does a 
vacuum." February 11, 1804. " As to myself, I 
have too much zeal, for the crazy house of my taber- 
nacle. Whatever my hands find to do, I do it with 
all my might, and I find that continued, unremitted 
attention, for a considerable length of time, fa- 



1 From a letter to his brother Samuel, December, 1806 : " He might 
have added that I am now forty-seven, with a sickly constitution, in an 
ofFice which does not maintain me, and with a family the most helpless 
in New England. You see I am not in good spirits ; I am sincerely 
glad you arc. I hope they will continue, and that your endeavors will 
be crowned with success. I hope this on your own account, on account 
of your wife and chiMren, and on account of my own. As to myself, it 
is of little consequence what becomes of me : and I have no doubt, as 
long as I live I shall have meat to eat, and raiment wherewithal to be 
clothed," 



172 LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 

tigues me more than it did a kw years ago." Jan- 
uary 1, 1805. " I intended a winter of leisure, 
but I find as much difficulty in spending my time 
idly, as some others do in exertion. In my con- 
science I believe I am doing no good, and yet I am, 
under the influence of this conviction, all the time 
doing. What a mercy it is that I am not addicted 
to drinking, gambling, horse-racing, cock-fighting, 
(you see I speak to you as a southern man.) or any 
other such like vices, for I am sure I should never 
leave them off*, as long as I had liquor, cards, and 
money or credit, horses, cocks, &,c. Some evil ge- 
nius has been for years stirring me up, to look a little 
into the science of pleading ; and my powers of 
resistance at this time happening to be weaker, or 
the temptation stronger, I have done, as good men 
have done before me, yielded, and am now enve- 
loped in counts, bars, replications, estoppels, traverses, 
&c. You will say, and say justly, ' what the dense 
has a New Hampshire lawyer or judge to do with 
special pleadings ? ' If he acquires any knowledge, 
standing alone, he will have nothing for his pains but 
mortification. He must be disgusted with every re- 
cord he hears read, and can never hope to reduce 
our horrible jargon into form or shape. All this is 
true. Surely there must be something in destiny, 
which you know it is in vain to resist. I can no 
more help trying to be a special pleader, than Cocke 
can help being an able statesman, or Sam Smith 
a modest, unassuming, correct senator. Our des- 
tinies will have it so. I mean, however, that you 
should consider all this as an apology for not writing 



LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 173 

often, and when I do write, writing a la mode special 
pleading, as it respects entertainment." 

It is not in my power, indeed it hardly belongs to 
a personal biography, and would not be interesting 
to the general reader, to trace minutely the changes 
which Judge Smith introduced into the administra- 
tion of the law. '' With him," I use the words of 
the present able chief justice of New Hampshire, 
'' there arose a new order of things. Those mem- 
bers of the bar, who were dihgent and attentive to 
their business, were commended and encouraged, and 
those who were negligent were lectured and repri- 
manded. There was, of course, greater preparation 
on the part of the bar, and greater investigation and 
deliberation on the part of the bench. A general 
practice was very soon adopted, for but one judge to 
charge the jury in each case.' Points of law were 
ruled, and cases saved for more thorough examina- 
tion. New trials were granted for errors in matters 
of law, but when this practice began, the rule was to 
grant no new trial for any such error where the case 
was open to review.^ There was, in the outset, con- 



1 In a letter to William Plumer, lllh of Februarj^, 1804, Jud^e Smith 
says : " I am just returned from Portsmouth, not a little fatigued. A. 
Livermore did not attend. I do not know how it is, but it really seems 
to me that there is no use in having a court that try causes with a jury, 
to consist of more than one judge. Our friend W. H. A. is chafed in 
his mind, and the venerable old judge grows more and more indifferent 
to the business of the court." 

2 The first intimation of a change in this respect, arose in a case 
where a young woman, who was possessed of some property, died at the 
house of a brother, who was worthless ; and he, without any authority, 
took a promissory note which belonged to her estate, presented it to the 
maker, and received payment. The father, who was entitled as heir, 

15* 



siilorablo oppi>silion \o this r(^rro(Mii>n oi cvvoia, hut 
il was siistainoil. Manusi-ripl n^ports o[ thai liiiio 
lunwil is uiuliMstooii. biHMi prt\<iMVt\l. but hav(^ never 
boon i^ivcMi to the publir." 

Bofoiv Juiliio Smith. thtM(^ had been, on \\\c part of 
tho judges oi' \e\v llainpshiio. littK^ att(MUii>n ^iviMi 
to thc^ law as an t^sfabhshod si-iiMuw Thi^ justieo o( 
tho raso was hoKl up as tho law ol' the rase : aiui 
tho jury won^ to jud^^i^ In^th ol" the law aiul the laet. 
Ot' course there emdd In^ no uuiforinily in tlu^ (Umm- 
sions. There were no lixeil principles : but (^aeli 
easi^ must have bi\Mi (h^'idi^l aeet>rdini:- to tlu^ im- 
pulse ot' the jury, who could havt^ no ruK^ but tluMr 
own lluetuatini^- itleas of justice. It is not dillicult 
to see w hat a din>r nuist havt^ hvcu \c[\ oycn (ov all 
the arts o( the prt>l(^ssion. the passionate appeals, tho 
low cuiuuni;-, throuuh which law is iici^lcctcd aiul jus- 
tice set aside. 

Judiic Smith rei|uircd a strict attention to the law. 
oven in its mimitt^ I'orms : wisely juili^ini;- that s(^ve- 
rity. evtMi in ti I'hnical matters, though sometinu\s it 
mii;ht bear hard on imiividual cases, was \c{ the only 
secure preservative of justice. Mxactness in t'orm. 



tttok lulminisliation. ;\t\it ln-oi»i:!it :m notion MLjaiiist {\w inaUi-r »»(' llvo 
noU\ {o roioviM llio lUtMu \ . o\\ tho groiimt that tl»o paym*Mtl to the 
brothor, wlui UaA no ;uilhonl\ to loooivo it. oonstUntotl tto tiisohargo. 
Tl»o court so ihar^otl tho jury, luit thoy ivturno»i a voriliot (\>r tlvo tto- 
louilant ; and ilio toiomau. ujion boinij askod on what ijroiunt tlioy 
brought in suoh a vordiot, saiil ho tliought il' a luuu j>aitt Itis noto o\wc, 
Uuil was suttioiout. Tito notion was roviowoti. ai\d on tito trial ol" tho 
roviow, Chiol" .lustioo Sn\itl» said, liait a motion lioou tuado. Ito should 
have hoon induced lo sol aside iho t'orinor verdict, ihe case was so 
sirou'^. 



I.irK (H- .HIIXiK SMITir. 175 

lends to nxMclnrss in llio wlioK; incriJJil (lisci|»liri(;, 
niid they who uro (h^epcst in tfic; priiiciplr.s of ji 
sc^irnce, ;ir(; ;ilvv;iys Jitnoni:; tliosc; who inc. iho riir)st 
cxju't in ilM (Iclails. No vvjurior wms ever more ex- 
act or cx.'ietirif^^ in all that. h< lonj.,'(uI to iho rninulo 
discipline of eacli soIcTk;!' than Napoleon, and it was 
this exactness in details that enahhul him to carry 
out, in a, hatth; or a. eainpai<^ni, the lari^'(! and cornpre- 
h€nsiv<; rules of his seienc<;. So it rruist he in every 
department. (leneral knowI(!(If^^e is hut another 
iiatnc for general ignorance. In order to he of any 
practical use, knowledge must be particular, mimite, 
and exact; and nevermore so than in thf; a|)pliea- 
tion of legal principles, whcTe so many warring in- 
terests and prejudices come in, to turn justice aside 
from its true ends. T<;chnieal rul(!S and forms are 
the defences which have been thrown, by the; wis- 
dom of ages, aroimd the pure abstractions of the 
law, to guard th(;m from human infirniities, and 
secure thcim in their administration from the intlu- 
ence of fear, erunity, compassion, and whatever other 
momentary impulses might interfere with the straight- 
forward course of justice. TlKJse were the views 
entertain(;d by .Fudge; Smith, and which, in his judi- 
cial charaet(;r, Ik; labored earnestly to practise and 
enforce; ; and with siich success, that be.fore he left 
the; l)(;n(;h there was probal)ly no state; in the; union 
whe;r(; the law was me>re strictly admin istere;el.' In- 



' Mr. Wclistcr tiiis l)onn heard to say, thai haviiif^ practised iti many 
courts, hcfr'minu^ with that of (icor^c Jac krrian, juslico of tlif jM-aco for 
tlio county of ]lillsl)or()ii<;li, who had held a coiriiiiissiori from the time 



"ilCl T.IFK OK .11 P(;K S^llTH. 

dooil l\\c [uaWcv was t';uri(\l so far. thai llu^ iVtnv 
Ifainpshiro praotioo has hiH-onu^ ahiu^sl j^iintMhial 
for its sovority. and has soinotimos boon hohl np 
as inconsistont with tho oc>uitosy that boooim^s tho 
moinbors ot' a liboral aiul lui:hl\ rospootablo pro- 
fession. 

ThtMi^ may havo boon soniothin^ in tho oarly train- 
inij- ol tho prat Now llaini>sInio lawyors, whioh. 
whilo it bronchi out thoir stR^mth. K^lt th(^ni withont 
tho nrbano aot^^nplishnionts and paoos. in thoir 
prol'ossional intiMrourso. wliioh soimMimos boK^ni:: to 
tlioso who havt' biH^n born and brt^l amid tho hixnri- 
ous n^inonuMits of stH'ii^ty. Tlioir iliuimtio miiuis. 
i:Ta[>phnj^- with hard i^nostions. and poworl'nlly mt>vod 
by all that i^ivos c^xciliMnont to d(^bat(\ (^miKI ni>t al- 
ways olh^iso tho most courtly words, and it is not 
impt-tssiblo that. tVom loar of Liivim:- nntlno advantai^o, 
tlu^v may havc^ boon in tho habit o( yielding too 
littlt^ to what may bo oallt^l ilu^ o^MUtosy o( tho l>ar. 
l^nt it may well bo quostionod. in tho lirst plaoo, 
whothor tlu^ practice as a general rule, of yielding 
ni^thing whioh tho law in its utmost rigor rot^niros, 
is not the most favorable to the strict administratii^n 



o\' ('JoovLTi' tho Soo(>ni1. nud cdiuir nji to the oourl o( .'chn ]Vt:\rshall. :U 
Washiiiijlon, ho h;\<l uov«t tounit m jiuiijo hotoro whom it \v;\s nioro 
plonsant and satistaoti^ry {o transact husi)ioss than l>o("oro Chiol" .'nstioo 
Smith ; that ho had kn«nvn no jndjro nioro qniolc in his ]>orooi>tii>ns, 
n\oro roady with all onlinary loarninjLr, or possossinj; u\oiv jnuvor to 
mako a plain and }>ors)iionons stato>i\ont of a otunplioatod oaso to tho 
jury. Ho aililoii, that with CliiotMustioo Smith, iiulustry in preparation 
on tho part of tho oonnsol, rosoaroh into tho points of law. an*! a frank 
ami n\anly ]irosontmonl of tho wholo oaso. jilaoing it npon its trno 
morits. withont disi^tiiso or oonooalmont, wotiM ijo as far for tho miiinte- 
nanoo o[ Irnlh aiul jnstioo, as with any jndiro ho had t^or known. 



LIFE OF JUVdK SMITH. 177 

of justice ; and secondly, whether this extreme se- 
verity, when once it has beconne the settled rule of 
f)racli''.c, irjny not l)e f)erfectly consistent with the ur- 
f>ariity and kindness tliat should mark the intercourse 
of gentlemen, in all their relations. 

But, while laborin<^ to introduce a [)ractice con* 
forming to strict technical rules, Judge Smith held 
always in great contempt those lawyers' who, unable 
to grasp the law in all its length and breadth, would 
seize on some of its minute forms, and make every- 
thing yield to them. We liave seen how large and 
generous were his views of legal cidture. No branch 
of knowledge came amiss. With him the law was 
not a collection of arbitrary rules, to be learned fjy 
rote, and adrriinistered, each according to its own 
letter. It was a great and comprehensive system, 
proceeding from, and sustained by, the principles of 
universal reason, according to which, each and all of 
its provisions were to be interpreted and applied. It 
was only as springing from, and subordinate to, these 
central princi}>les, that legal forms engaged his re- 
spect. He loved to observe the exact letter, only so 
far as it embodied the exact spirit, of the law ; and 
among the records which he has left of his private 
thoughts, arc these emphatic words — '^ If the world 
should be pleased to speak of me after I am dead, let 
them say, he was a judge who never permitted justice 
to be strangled in the nets of form." 

The ^ame general remark api)lies also to the esti- 



1 " Isli iniriuti philosoplii," us Cicoro calls tlic corresponding,' class of 
philosojihfrs, unless the expression aj)])]y more properly to the class 
mentioned in the next paragraph. 



178 LIFE or JUDGE SMITH. 

mation in which ho held the extreme refiiieincnts and 
subtle reasonings upon the law, which, with very acute 
minds, holds the same place as miiuile forms, with 
minds of a dillorcnt character, lie knmv how to 
anal}/o an inlricate subject, to throw aside that which 
is not essential, and follow with singular acutcness 
each particular libie, from the topmost branch to the 
very root, lie knew, also, that the most important 
questions turn sometimes upon an exceedingly small 
pivot. But he had great confidence in plain, common- 
sense views, and though highly entertained by the 
exhibition, (which he must often have witnessed at 
the bar,) of extreme logical ingenuity, he looked 
upon it as a perversion, rather than the legitimate use 
of reason, and always distrusted its results. After 
quoting Lord Eldon's remark, " There is no mistake 
so foolish, as to suppose a judge will not alter his 
opinion ; I am sure it has often occurred to me, that 
I have set about to see if I could not alter my opin- 
ion," — Judge Smith adds, " I have seen a judge 
laboring to alter his opinion. lie often succeeded, 
and often from right to wrong, abandoning a ])lain, 
sound, connnon-sense o})inion, for one merely inge- 
nious, plausible, d^c." 

Another (juality, for whicli Judge Smith was emi- 
nently tlistinguished on the bench, was his business 
talent. To this he attached great importance. 
*' Wiien men," he says, " have been considering the 
qualitications of a judge, it is astonishing that they 
should overlook experience in business. Who can 
tell how much it contributes to despatch ? It greatly 
exceeds acutcness of i)arts, or, rather, the latter can 



LIFE OF jud(;e smith. J 79 

do little without the former." He rccjuired that 
every man connected with the court should be ready 
when his time came. By this liahit of [punctuality, 
by a more orderly and systematic arrangement of 
business, by seizing on the real points at issue, and 
excluding irrelevant matter, and especially by his 
own promptness . and decision, he, without hurry or 
indecent haste, did much to avoid the wearisome de- 
lays which often clog the wheels of justice, and bring 
upon it so heavy a reproach. 

Judge Smith always paid particular attention to 
young men ; and there are many who gratefully ac- 
knowledge their obligation to him, for the encour- 
agement he gave them as they were entering upon 
their profession. Perhaps the circumstances under 
which he was himself introduced to the bar, had 
always some influence upon him ; but he had from 
nature, I believe, a warm sympathy and fellow-feeling 
for the young. He loved to watch their progress, 
and where he saw marks of real promise, could easily 
bear with the indiscretions that arise from want of 
experience, and tlie irregularities that proceed rather 
from the superabundance of animal spirits, than the 
superfluity of naughtiness. He was ready to |)ardon 
much to the ebullition of youthful feeling, f)rovJded 
that he saw, underneath, ingenuousness of character 
and a purpose of self-improvement. There was no- 
thing on whicFi he more, or perhaps more Justly, 
prided himself, than the faculty of reading, in its 
early developments, the man's future history. 

At the court holden in Hillsborough county, in 
1806, a young man who had been admitted as an 



180 LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 

attorney but not as a counsellor, appeared with a 
cause of no great pecuniary importance, but of some 
interest and some intricacy. Though not then of 
such advanced standing at the bar, as to be entitled 
to address the jury, he was yet allowed to examine 
the witnesses, and briefly to state his case both upon 
the law and the facts. Having done this, he handed 
his brief to Mr. Wilson, the senior counsel, for the 
full argument of the matter. But the chief justice 
had noticed him, and on leaving the court-house, 
said to a member ^ of the bar, that he had never be- 
fore met such a young man as that. It was Daniel 
Webster, and this was his first action before the 
court. 

It should be noted, however, that Judge Smith 
had, before this, a long and friendly acquaintance 
with Mr. Webster's father. They had known each 
other in the times of the revolution. They had been 
together at Bennington ; and when Ebenezer Webster 
was made a judge of the court of common pleas, 
about the year 1791, he became a member of a court, 
before which Judge Smith practised many years in 
the earlier part of his professional life. Judge Web- 
ster was, according to all accounts, a man for whom 
strong good sense, integrity of purpose and activity 
of mind, had done whatever those qualities can do to 
fit a man to be a judge who yet wanted a suitable 
education for judicial employments. He entertained 
the most exalted opinion of Judge Smith, and was 
one of his warmest supporters during his continuance 
in congress. It may be, therefore, that Judge Smith's 

1 General James Miller, to whom I am indeblcd for the anecdote. 



LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 181 

prediction of the future eminence of the son, was 
strengthened by his feehng of friendship for the fa- 
ther.' 

The character of Judge Smith's advice to young law- 
yers may be understood from the following paragraphs 
taken from his common-place book : " Many, very 
many leisure hours, has a young lawyer, before he can 
fairly and honestly get into practice. I say honestly^ 
meaning honorably, for he may push himself in dis- 
honorably, and will be sure to pay for it in the end — 



1 For the -account I have here given of Judge Webster, as well as for 
bis kind and important assistance in many ways, I must acknowledge 
my obligations to George Ticknor, Esq. A speech by the Hon. Charles 
H. Warren, at the dinner of the New England Society, in New York, 
December, 1844, contains some further interesting particulars respecting 
Judge Webster. " In the olden time," so the speech is reported in the 
newspapers, " there was a man in New Hampshire, who in his youth 
was 'bound apprentice,' as we call it there, to a farmer; and the farmer 
was bound by his covenants to give him three months' schooling in the 
year — a good old Yankee custom, and I trust one also in New York; 
but unlike Yankee masters in general, he failed to give the boy an 
hour's schooling, and he never had one till the day of his death. In the 
old French war of 1756, this boy entered the army as a private, and he 
fought himself up to a commission, first as a warrant officer, then as an 
ensign, and upon the peace of Paris, in 1763, he left the army, came 
home, and his first act upon his return, was to bring an action against 
his master for a breach of his covenant in not sending him to school. 
(Laughter arid cheers.) And the master compromised his claim and 
gave him a tract of land that is the family homestead now. The war of 
the revolution came, and this same man now a captain of militia, went 
with his company to West Point, and was there at the time of Arnold's 
treason. And two nights after that treason, he stood guard before 
Washington's head quarters, and the next morning Washington thanked 
him in person for his vigilance and fidelity. Well, that man has left a 
son, and that son has often mounted guard since, when he thought trea- 
son was working in the American camp. The father's name was Eben- 
ezer Webster! (A spontaneous and tremendous mark of applause — 
waving of handkerchiefs and most enthusiastic cheering.) I see it 
needed no prophet to tell what the son's name was ! (Renewed cheer- 
ing.)" 

16 



182^ LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 

in loss of fame, friends, and even loss of bnsiness. 
Let these leisure hours be spent in aoiiuirinij; know- 
ledge ; he need not be afraid of Iiaviui:; too lari!;e a 
stock for his business, when fairly introduced." In 
another place, after (|uotin^- the maxim, ^' he that 
would climb a tree must grasp by the branches, not 
by the blossoms," he adds : " No man ever became 
distinguished as a scholar, a statesman, or a profes- 
sional man, who felt no other stimulus than the j)re- 
sent pleasure derived from his studies. The pleasure 
is the reward, the consequence rather than the etlicient 
cause, lie must not follow where pleasure leads, 
but ambition must prom})t and judgment direct. Vro 
pretio labor est ; nee stmt immimia tanta. 



All noble tlniiiTs are dilficxilt to p:riin, 
And wilhont labor, none can thoni attain. 



" He who says, Tlvamus, mea Lesbian atquc ame- 
mus, will never be a scholar, statesman, nor lawyer, 
whatever else he may be." 

"To the young lawyer — Have you more acute- 
ness, genius, mind, knowledge, than Parsons ? Yet 
who was more indefatigable in his profession, and in 
the acquisition of knowledge ? If I must choose for 
my son, between genius or great talents, and indus- 
try, I shall not hesitate a moment in my choice of 
the last." 

Then, in reference to the observation that to some 
beings the bounty of nature dispenses with the usual 
steps to excellence, and instinctively supplies what 
the most painful study can rarely reach, and never 



LIFE OF JUDGE SIWITII. 183 

surpass, lie says : " Nature docs a great deal of mis- 
chief, in these occasional freaks. The vanity of 
tliousands, and sonic of them clodpolcs, whisj)crs to 
them, ' thou art the man,' instead of ' thou art the 
clodpole.' " 

The following is dated 29th Se[)teml)er, 1825. 
" Great things may he accom[)lisIied in a sliort time 
where the disposition is good, and the understanding 
apt. You must shake ofl' your indolence ; begin by 
making yourself master of your profession, and as 
soon as possible acquire the habit of attention. Fur- 
nish your mind, enlarge your experience. One would 
think the genuine passion of love for a deserving 
woman could not fail to whisper this advice, and pre- 
vail. He must be far gone in indolent habits who is 
insensible to such promptings." 

Whut follows, was written when he was nearly 
cighty-lvvo years old, and shows the feeling with which 
he entered upon his profession, and which continued 
to the end, so true is it that the most useful and hon- 
orable lives are those which begin with the highest 
purposes. " Tfie oath of a knight, never to sit in a 
place where injustice shall be done, without righting it 
to the utmost of his power. J. S. took this oath in early 
life, and hopes he has in some good measure kept it. 
Let not this be called vaunting. Remember his life 
is about closing, and he, in a worldly sense, a disin- 
terested witness." In a passage, written nearly ten 
years before this, lie says : " I don't know whether I 
can with propriety say it, but I can't help saying, that 
I was endued with strong feelings of abhorrence to 
injustice, and of resistance to oppression, and I am 



184 LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 

very sure that iiiolives o( a personal nature have 
very seldom, if ever, o{)erated to prevent the expres- 
sion of my honest and independent sentiments and 
opinions. In these things ! am afraid that I eannot 
lay claim to temperance of mind, or feelings well bal- 
anced." 

Judge Smith's charges to the grand jury, which 
are written with great simplicity, are full of sound 
practical instruction, relating to the nature of the 
laws, the way in which they were to be administered, 
and the best means of securing and advancing the 
public welfare. 

" Laws," he said at a time when the doctrine was 
not so fully admitted as it now is, '' should be mild ; 
wdiere punishments are mild, shame follows the linger 
of the law, but wlierc they are severe, there is a sym- 
pathy excited for the otiendcr, and he is viewed as a 
martyr to arbitrary power. I'lxperiencc has abun- 
dantly proved, that mild laws are more eliicacious 
than severe ones, and that rigorous punishments tend 
rather to produce, than to prevent crimes. Laws 
should be few in number. Legislation may be car- 
ried too far. Every unnecessary * restraint is tyran- 
nical and unjustifiable, for every member of the state 



' " A land m;iy c^roiin umlor ;i innltitutlo of laws, and I believe ours 
does, and when laws cfrow so nnillii>lied, they prove oflener snares, U)an 
directions and security lor the people." — Ltord S/iaftshunj. 

" The senate of the Areopa^^ns, once punisiied a senator for stiHinij a 
little bird that had taken refuge in his bosom. It was considered a 
crime agaiivst humanity." — Aiiacharsis. 

" Corruptissima llepublica, ]>liirima^ leji^es." — 7'/n7iJs Juital. II f. '27. 

Juili^o Smith always thouij^hl, lliat our i;reat danger lay in legislating 
loo much. 



LIFK OF JCDr.E SMlTIf. 185 

is of right cnlillcd to the liighcst possible degree of 
liberty wfiich is consistent with the safety and well- 
being of the whole." But however excellent the 
laws, they will be of no avail unless faithfully exe- 
cuted. " The certainty of punishment is nnorc effi- 
cacious to prevent crimes, than the severity of it.' 
Among some it has been a favorite opinion, that po- 
litical freedom consists in an exemption from the re- 
straints of law. Tiiere cannot be a greater error. Tf 
the laws arc not strictly executed, they will soon be 
totally disregarded ; and where the laws do not gov- 
ern, depend upon it, the will of a despot or despots, 
(for there may be more than one at a time,) will gov- 
ern. ' Amid the clashing of arms, the laws are si- 
lent ; ' the converse is also true, that when laws are 
silent, arms will be heard, and they will be obeyed. 
Grand juries are sometimes deterred from presenting 
infractions of the law, by personal compassion ; but 
they ought to remember, even if they forget their 
oaths, that private and individual compassion is often- 
times general cruelty. Let there be abundant clem- 
ency in the code of laws, and mercy lodged with the 
supreme power in the state ; but let courts and juries 
faithfully execute tlie laws, which is the trust more 
especially confided to them. I conclude, gentlemen, 
with repeating my belief that you will conscientiously 
discharge the duty incumbent on you, at this term, 
by presenting all oflences that may come to your 



> "So rigorous were the forest laws of Franco, that a peasant, charged 
with having killed a wild hoar, alleged as an alleviation of the charge, 
that he thought it was a man."— 3 BUs. Lee. 15. 
16* 



186 LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 

kno\vlctlp:o, truly and iinpiiitially. Like perfect his- 
toriaii!?, you will not fear to say anything that is true, 
nor dare to say anything that is false ; but will so act 
in every part of your oilice, that the innocent may 
approach this tribunal without apprehension of dan- 
ger, and the guilty leave it without complaining of 
injustice." 

In respect to banishing men, as a punishment, he 
says : " We are more given to importing, than to ex- 
porting; and it is easy to see that the balance of this 
species of trade is very much against us. It is nat- 
ural, perhaps, that those who have escaped from the 
jails in Europe, should be fond of liberty when they 
come here, and that those destitute of morality, should 
endeavor to cover their deformities with the mantle of 
patriotism, which, like charity, covereth a multitude 
of sins. But it was not to have been expected that 
men, whose highest claim is to our suflerance, should 
venture to interfere in our councils, and dictate to us 
in the management of our aflairs.'- 

The following paragraph, from the charge delivered 
in the spring of 1804, is marked "omitted in the de- 
livery " : " False and malicious writing;? a2:ainst men 
in oiFice, deserve the reprobation of all good men, 
and the severest chastisement of the law. Justice, 
like a guardian angel, should watch over the pillows 
of the men whose lives are devoted to the public ser- 
vice. Every blow levelled at their reputations and 
characters, if unjustly inflicted, is, in its consequences, 
injurious to the public. The character and welfare of 
the community, is intimately blended with the charac- 
ter of tlicir rulers, and it is impossible unjustly to de- 



LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 187 

fame the one, witlioiit doing essential injury to the 
other." 

During the first two or three years that Judge Snnitfi 
was on the bench, there was no crinne to wliich he so 
constantly and earnestly called the attention of the 
grand jury, as forgery. It appeared, from the evi- 
dence in different cases, that gangs of counterfeiters 
made their head-quarters in New Hampshire, in con- 
sequence of the great mildness of the New Hampshire 
laws towards their offence. He often, and in the 
strongest language, speaks of perjury, " the attack on 
religion and law, in the very point of their union." 
" So atrocious," he says, " was this offence viewed, 
by the pious and moral settlers of New England, that 
in their first code of laws perjury was subjected to 
capital punishment." " It is a melancholy thing, that 
judges are often called upon to state to the jury, that 
a fact is not proved, because it is sworn to. We can- 
not help seeing, in men of some standing in society, a 
disposition to evade tlie truth, to practise cunning and 
ingenuity ; as if there were as much merit in gaining 
a cause by ingenious swearing, as by ingenious argu- 
ment." 

At the time Judge Smith came to the bench, per- 
jury was practised to a most alarming extent. There 
were men of apparent respectability, who made it 
their business to be witnesses, and to train others to 
testify as circumstances might require ; so that it came 
to be understood that any one, unscrupulous enough 
to adopt the means, might procure for any case such 
testimony as he wished. In order to put down this 
alarming evil, the chief justice, in conformity with 



133 LiFK OF Jinnr. smith. 

what ho bcliovod iho spirit of ihr iMii^Hsh law, allow- 
ed the counsoh j)i\n itlcd thoy wcio williiii; to take 
the risk, an unusual doiiice ot*soverit\ iu noss-exain- 
iuiim witnesses. There was one man in pailieular, 
who attended the courts almost as regularly as the 
judiix^s : a man of some i)roperty and of considerable 
talent and intluence, whom it wasexcecdiuiily dillicult 
to catch, but who, at last, after a cross-examination of 
many hours, was so completely broken down and ex- 
posed, that his testimony afterwards was of no value. 
Such a practice at the bar must have had its disad- 
vantages, but in its elVect was undoubtedly favorable 
to the administration of justice. Cross-examining is, 
however, a weapon, which, unless used with great skill 
and caution, is likely to lly back and wound Iiim who 
uses it, more than his antagonist. 

In the charge delivered in the fall of 1307, after 
speaking of the little attention bestowed upon the ju- 
diciary, com[)arcd with what is given to the other 
branches of government, he enters more particularly 
into an account of the arduous and painful duties of 
a judge, and adds: '' To balance all these evils, and 
many besides, which every judge could add to the 
list, he is allowed to enjoy, pure and unmixed with the 
trash of this world, all the satisfaction which Hows from 
a conscientious discharge of duty. This is, indeed, 
the most precious reward for labor ; and society will 
generally take care that it shall be the onl)/ reward 
of a judge. 

" The institution of juries is, however, favorable to 
judges, as well as to the administration of justice. 
Forty or fifty persons are selected, at every term, from 



LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 189 

the most respectable inhabitants of tfic vicinity, to at- 
tend the court while employed in the exercise of its 
judicial functions. If they were mere spectators of 
what passes in court, they would be of great utility. 
The presence of so many respectable persons must 
have a beneficial influence over witnesses, and I have 
no doubt has been the means of preventing much per- 
jury. The very countenance of good men affords no 
small support to a poor man struggling to obtain jus- 
tice, against an artful and powerful antagonist, while, 
at the same time, it has some tcFidency to weaken the 
strength of the boldest transgressor. To the court, 
the presence of these respectable men is no less ben- 
eficial. If the judges are what the constitution re- 
quires them to be, skilful in discerning the path of 
duty, diligent, upright and impartial in dispensing 
justice, these men will be witnesses for them, and their 
respectable and impartial testimony, in a tolerable state 
of society, will, it may be hoped, far outweigh the mis- 
representations of those who revile and hate the ad- 
ministration of justice, because they are made to feel 
the just effects of their folly and wickedness. 

'' But it is still better, when a considerable number 
of persons from the various parts of the country, are 
occasionally called to take a part in the administration 
of justice, civil and criminal, to bear a portion of tfiat 
burthen, vvhich will prove too heavy for any man to 
sustain many years. It is said that the safety of every 
free government requires that the virtuous part of the 
community should enjoy a certain weight in the ad- 
ministration. Is not this applicable to the judiciary ? 
Without this popular intermixture, judicial decisions 



190 LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 

would hardly give satisfaction ; and of what utility 
would the wisest and most correct decisions be, if the 
majority of the citizens were dissatisfied with them ? 
In short, gentlemen, I verily believe, that the wisdom 
of ages has never produced, and that the wit of man 
never will produce, anything so admirable, as the 
institution of juries, grand and petit, in tlie adminis- 
tration of justice. But, at the same time, it cannot 
be denied, that even this mode of inquiry, excellent 
and useful as it is, like everything of human inven- 
tion, is not entirely free from defects. We can even 
conceive of its existing in such a state, as to be the 
worst tribunal on earth. The best things, when de- 
generate and corrupt, become the worst. And this 
would be true of juries, if not composed of suitable 
and qualified persons ; if they should overleap their 
proper bounds, and if they should become negligent 
or corrupt, or even suspected of gross partiality in 
the discharge of their functions. 

" In some parts of our country, (and in early times 
in New England,) it has been deemed proper for grand 
juries to notice, in their presentments, the operations 
of government, and to expose, at least to inspection, 
public men and public measures ; to suggest public 
improvements, and the modes of removing public in- 
conveniences. These presentments may sometimes 
have had a salutary effect, but I have no hesitation in 
saying, that the effect will generally be pernicious. 
If they sometimes aid a good government, they will 
at others, perhaps, thwart the best measures of the 
best government. If they sometimes denounce bad 
men, what security have we that they will always spare 



LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 191 

the good ? Their means of getting information are 
too hmited to speak decisively on such subjects, and 
they will oftener express the sentiments and feelings of 
the party to which they belong, than the sentiments or 
opinions of the public at large. It is, besides, introduc- 
ing politics into courts of justice, an evil which cannot 
be too carefully guarded against. 

" With regard to the manner in which you ought to 
discharge your duties, it is not necessary for me to say 
much ; your oath, which is the commission under 
which you act, is a good summary of your duty. But 
it may be useful, perhaps, to mention some of the temp- 
tations to which juries are most exposed, and the points 
on which they are most likely to fail of performing 
their duty. A jury, I speak of traverse as well as grand 
juries, is a popular body, and as such, must be expos- 
ed to suspicion of partiality, arising from local preju- 
dices, popular clamor, and party spirit. The latter is 
not peculiar to these times, or our country. Wherever 
there is freedom, there party spirit will be found to 
exist, and where juries are summoned from the neigh- 
borhood, they will, they must bring with them into 
court, much of the sentiments and feelings of the 
people from whom they are selected. It requires no 
small share of virtue and vigor of mind, to rise above 
local prejudices and party spirit, to decide justly be- 
tween a neighbor, and a stranger — one who has po- 
pularity on his side, and one who has the misfortune 
to be obnoxious. To be perfectly cool, when a cry 
has been raised, and the neighborhood is in a flame, 
falls to the lot of a few only. And, even if we sliould 
be happy enough to rise above all obstacles, and be 



Id2 i.iKr. ov JincK sMiru. 

ablo i\>!isru'i\tioiisly to ilischarm^ our duly, \m^ can 
scarcolv \\o\>c to t\<rapi* siispifioii. 

*• A low otMituiios nm>. w Ikmi sIkmIiIs ami atlonioys 
wiMi^ loss t-onoiM in tluMr inoials than at this day. aiul 
wluMi \\\c shiMilVioturiu^l tho )uri(\s. it was a oonunon 
urtioK^ in an attorni\v's hill, to rhaii^o a otaiain sum 
for pn^ouriuLi tlu^ tViondship i>t* th(V<:luMitV, in tluMlu>ioo 
autl iiMurn ol' jurors, laubraoory ot' jurors, or ilu^ at- 
tonipt I'onuptlv to inlluonoo tluMU to one sido. was an 
otVonoo ol'tiMi ooinmitttnl. and s(^v(Mi^ly punishoil, and 
it is an i>ilonoo still. It is, piMhaps. natural (Mioui;h, 
as luunan nature^ is. that partios, ami i\>^p(H"ially those 
who havo a bad oausi\ should ondoa\or to sc^mu(\. by 
unduo moans, tho lavor ol' tlu^ j^'y • ^^ 'i^'n JUk^is aro 
applioil to bv partios. in this way, tlu\v should always 
umlorstand that tlu^ party applyinu' thinks as nu^inly 
o( his ow n oauso as \\c doc^i oi' tho uj>rii;htn(\^s. iK^li- 
oaov, and honor i>l' tho juior. 'Vo so ur(\it a hoi^ht 
had thoso o\ils arison at particular tinu\< and plaoi^s, 
as almost to justity what was said by a txood bislu>p, 
ol' tho London jurios. who socmu at all tiim>s to havo 
l>oon poouliarlv oxposod to this oxtornal inlhuMU'o, — 
' that thov woro so prt^judiocul ami partial, that thoy 
would linil Abc^l guilty of thi^ murdta- of Cain,' 

" I havo hail oooasion to obsorvo, duriui;* my at- 
tomlanoo on courts, that popular oausos aro i^omaally 
ilooidotl wrom;-, and tho ri^ison is, booausc^ law and 
evitloniH' aro not alono ropudod. A\'hon a oauso has 
boon rojuwliHllv tri(\l. and boi-oim^ a subjoot of con- 
versation, it is dilliouh to obtain a corriu't diH-ision. 
Few, tvvcopt i-ourt ami jury, havo tiu^ nu\ins ot' hoar- 
ini:: the whole ; many aro not capable of judj^iiii; in a 



LIFK OF jf;r>f;j: smith. | 9:> 

complicated cause wfneh tijoy fiavo iuJIy fie^ird ; yet 
all undertake to jud-e-. No man objects lo his own 
competency, or withholds his opinion. It requires a 
degree of firmness and manly independence, not si^r^ 
common, to resist what appears to he tfje generfjl 
opinion of others." 

''I have dwelt longer than [ intended on the dan- 
ger of t)artiality in jurors. 1 hope what [ have said 
will be supposed applicable chiefly to former times 
and other places. I hope the picture I have sketr:hed 
will bear little resemblance to anything which lately 
has been, or speedily will be, seen in this state. But 
there is a great evil in jury trial, which is of modern 
growth, and in a great measure peculiar to ourselves ; 
I mean the frecjuent instances in which juries of trial 
disagree. It is well known to you, gentlemen, that 
when the grand jury is composed of twelve only, the 
law rcfjuires that they should be unanimou.';, and 
when the number is greater, there mu.st be twelve, at 
least, agreed to fi/jd a bill, ,'jnd that unanimity is al- 
ways re(iuired in the traverse jury. It would be a 
matter of curiosity, for which we have no leisure at 
this time, to trace out the origijj of this most singular 
institution — the principle of unanimity. It was not 
at once ado[>ted, either in ['England or in this country, 
and it does not j^revail in Scotland to this day. But 
It js sufficient for our present purpose, that it is now 
tfie law f;f this state. In criminal prosecutions this 
prinf;if>lf; is favoral^le to the accused. If the offence 
is not proved beyond all reasonable doubts in the 
mind of the most Hf:rupulous juror, it operates as an 
acquittal; but in civil suits it has lately, in practice, 
17 



IDl LIFE OF JUDGK SMITH. 

occasioned lUlay, a i;roat evil in (lie adiniiiistration 
of justice ; so true is tlie Ivistern niaxiu), in many 
cases, ' that speedy injustice is better than tartly jus- 
tice.' The modern method of trying causes, of itself 
occasions great delay. The length of the pleadings, 
arguments of counsel, etc., sometimes necessarily, 
and sometimes unnecessarily, protract the trial to 
a most unreasonable length. A late trial in this 
country, has occupied more than a month.' It is but 
a few years since an adjournment was first permitted 
in the trial of a cause. The disagreement of juries 
adds greatly to the evil. In fifty trials within the last 
five years, the jury have not agreed. Those have 
generally been causes where the expense of a trial has 
been considerable ; to the parties concerned, it has 
amounted at least to five thousand dollars ; and to 
the other parties who have causes in court, and to the 
public, the extra expense has been still greater. I 
speak much within bounds, when I say tiie whole 
expense has been a greater sum than the whole judi- 
ciary department has cost the state during the same 
period. Most of the causes where this disagreement 
took place, were those where local prejudices and 
public ojMuion have been suspected of having had an 
undue intluence. Real ditiiculty in the question to 
be tried has seldom prevented a verdict. Some of 
the causes to which I allude, have been tried live or 
six times. With the court, I trust, there has been no 
cause for disagreement of the jury. It has always 
been their uniform endeavor to declare the law, to 

1 The trial of A. Burr, in the circuit court of Virginia. 



j.ifj: ok ji;i>(;k HMiUf. 



n);ik(; it intcIli^IhN; to llio Jury, and to assist tliorri in 
jiid^ifi^ of tlio fjicts. It is rf'in;irk;ihIo tfiut tlio ^^routor 
riurnbor of tlie cjiusch vvli(;ro tlio jury luivo not aj^rocd, 
have hoon sucli as nii^^lit liavo boon roviow(;(J, of 
course. JJotli parties, tfierciforo', would liavr; been 
gainers by losirj;^ the cause when ihe jury had ho (Jis- 
agreed. There have f>e(;n irjstanees, within jrjy know- 
le(Jge, where the party finally (jrevailing, after re- 
peated trials, in wliieh tliere has been no verdict, 
would have been a gainer by losing the cause at tiie 
first trial, supposing that trial to be final." 

The great subjc^ct however, beyond all others, on 
which these charges, from beginning to end, insist, in 
tlic ifn[jr>rtance of public schools, arjd of moral and 
religious instruction. " The race of man," says 
Judge Snjitli, in his first charge, " cannot }>e happy 
without virtue, nor actively virtuous without freecJom, 
nor sec'.iiely free without rational knowlcfJge and 
education. JOverything cannot be expected from 
mere forms of civil goverrjment, though one form 
may l)e, and undoubtedly is, i>referable to others. 
Great exf)ectations have beerj raised of an end being 
put to wars, an(J of brotherly love and universal good- 
will prevailirjg in \.\\(t earth, by the mc;re exchange of 
monarchical fornjs <A' governrricnt for rej:>u[>lir;an and 
democratic, and from the illuminations whif;h [>hi- 
Ioso[>hy is sui)[jos(;d to be she-dding on this age of 
reason. Jiut it has fjeen fourjd, on ex[>erirfient, (tfie 
surest touchstone of f)olitical opinions, j that the state 
of society and the condition of mankifjd have not 
been mur:h im[)roved by [>olitical revolutions. Jiike 
eartij(juakes and tornadoes in tfie natural world, they 



196 LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 

serve to convulse society, and too often overwhelm 
in their ruins tlie most virtuous portion of the com- 
munity. They do not make good men better, but 
bad men worse. It is worthy of remark, that those 
who ha\^ been predicting this political millennium, 
this peaceable state of society, wiiich is to flow from 
mere forms of civil government, have been, in fact, 
the greatest disturbers of mankind ; and the boasted 
philosophy of the present day has been found, on 
experience, better calculated to weaken the bonds of 
society, than to unite mankind in brotherly love and 
affection. The w^orld is not to be regenerated by 
political revolutions, nor by the dogmas of infidel 
philosophy. 

'' The sum of the whole is, that while we faithfully 
discharge our several duties of jurors and judges, in 
impartially executing the laws, we must cherish our 
religious institutions. Disregarding all trifling distinc- 
tions among professors of the same faith, (for such will 
always exist,) we must cling to the Christian religion, 
as our only sure and steadfast anchor of hope. It is 
peculiarly our duty to do so at this time. We live in 
an age fond of liberty, but impatient of those salutary 
restraints of law which alone make liberty either last- 
ing or valuable. We have a constitution of govern- 
ment, the best formed to insure peace and happiness 
to the subjects of it. But governments, like the indi- 
viduals of which they are composed, have their imper- 
fections and defects. They have all, hitherto, proved 
mortal. Those formed on the principles of freedom 
and justice, have not been hitherto exempted from the 
general destruction. They have perished, like the 



LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 197 

rest. Indeed, we have the mortification to learn from 
history, that the freest governments have been of the 
shortest duration. Like some of the fairest flowers, 
they are the most easily destroyed by the rude blasts 
of popular passions. Let ours be built on the solid 
foundations of religion and morality, and when the 
rains descend, and the floods come, it shall remain un- 
moved, because founded on a rock." 

He urges again and again, the necessity of enforc- 
ing upon towns the laws requiring them to make pro- 
vision for pubHc schools. And, notwithstanding all 
that has been done, this is a subject on which, as mem- 
bers of a free community, our citizens now, especially 
some among the rich and learned, do not bestow the 
attention which its importance demands. They for- 
get that the security of property, and their position in 
the midst of a peaceable community, must depend on 
the education of the masses, whom, with a contempt, 
which argues as little for the soundness of their minds 
as for the kindness of their hearts, they would shut 
out from all but the lowest branches of knowledge. 
Judge Smith looked upon tlie subject with the eyes 
of an enlightened wisdom. 

In his cliarge for the spring circuit of 1807, he says : 
^' It is hardly to be expected that private individuals, 
in towns which are negligent, will bring forward pro- 
secutions. Some of the rich are so sordid as to think 
that the money laid out in educating the children of 
the poor, is money ill bestowed. The ignorant are 
doubtless ignorant of what they, as members of the 
community lose, by the neglect of maintaining schools. 
It is not even to be expected that the youth for whose 

17* 



198 LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 

immediate benefit these wholesome regulations are 
framed, can be fully sensible of how much importance 
it is to the community at large, that they should be 
early instructed in those principles of good manners, 
good morals, and useful knowledge, which are to be 
acquired in every well-regulated school. With what- 
ever disdain the pride of learning may look down on 
the scanty information which town schools can con- 
vey, men of benevolence and good sense, and I may 
add, all true republicans, will never consider any de- 
gree of knowledge as trifling, which tends to civilize 
and humanize a nation, and to fit it for the enjoyment 
of free government. Where the people are ignorant, 
the government 7nust be despotic ; and it is certainly 
true that the welfare of a nation depends much less 
on the refined w^isdom of the few, than on tiie man- 
ners and character of the many. This is particularly 
true in republics, for we have no security that the 
wise few will have any influence at all with the igno- 
rant many." 

Religion and virtue he regards, everywhere, as the 
pilars of our govern ment ; and omits no opportunity 
of recommending them, and whatever may conduce 
to them. "My design, gentlemen, in making these 
observations, is to impress on your minds, the import- 
ance of cherishing our religious, moral, and literary 
institutions. In your office of grand jurors, you are 
censors of the public morals and manners. In that 
character, in common with all in authority, it is your 
indispensable duty to lead the way to every design to 
meliorate and improve the state of society. It is an 
obvious truth, that example is more seductive, more 



LIFE OF JUDGE SMITfl. 199 

powerful than precept. It will, perhaps, be too much, 
after using all the means in our power, to expect that 
we shall be able to reduce the tumultuous activity of 
mankind into absolute regularity, but something may 
be done, and good actions and good sentiments will 
not be totally lost ; if they do not benefit others, they 
will benefit ourselves. We may at least hope that 
they will in some degree lessen the necessity of in- 
flicting punishment on our fellow-creatures, and that 
they will have some tendency to secure to us the bles- 
sings of liberty and a republican form of government, 
and enable us to transmit both to our posterity." 

'' A society which has no other method of promot- 
ing virtue, but by punishing oflfences when committed, 
will have a great many punishments to inflict. The 
gallows will be crowded with victims, and the execu- 
tioner's axe constantly wet with blood. The great ob- 
ject of government, in all their institutions, should be 
to prevent the commission of crimes. Our institutions 
of a literary, moral, and religious nature, are admira- 
bly calculated to produce these eflfects. But they 
must not be neglected, they must be carefully and as- 
siduously cultivated and cherished. An experiment 
has been lately made on the great theatre of the world, 
of governing mankind, under a republican form of 
government, without the aid of religion ; and how did 
this experiment succeed? Just as all such experi- 
ments will ever succeed, till the nature of man under- 
goes a radical change. Republicanism is an excellent 
form of government, but it cannot supply the place of 
religion and morality. Indeed, it requires a double 
portion of both. A good monarch may govern well 



900 



OK .irnCK SMITH. 



II virions ptM>|)K^ ; but a vicious |)(h>|)1o uuiKm' llio ro- 
piiblii'im loiMK luusl liavt^ had i;()V(MMors. It is lo be 
jMc^suiuod that llioy will clioosi^ (o have laws and an 
adiniiiislialiou liko tlionisi^lvcs. 

'' \'irHio is {\\c roundatioii ofropublics ; it is \\\v cor- 
nor-stoii(\ \\ i^ ar(^ now, as far as 1 know, {\\v only 
pot>{>K^ on oartli ondi>avoiin<; lo maintain a i;()vorinncnt 
whirh, in tniMV (h^parlnuMil of it, tMnanalc^s iVoin iho 
})co})lo, wliicli, in ovoiv loaluro of il, is doniocialic. 
It is a solonni considoialion ! And I wish lo loave 
it \^itil my i\>llow-riti/.iMis, as my iixod and dcuidcul 
opinion, that ihe o.xpoiimont wo arc now makin<4 will 
turn out lik(^ all oIIums that have been nuido, if wo do 
not oultivato and improve our minds and social allbc- 
tions by oihication and loarning, and our morals, by 
the puro principles of S(^und morality, and above all, 
by the mild and gentle inlhuMioe of that ' religion 
which comoth down from above, which is |)ure, juaco- 
ablo, ami full of i^ood fruits.' " 

What follows is the close of the last charge that 
ho gave to a grand jmy, Ix^fore retiiing from the 
bench, in 180i): " From this brief review of our 
criminal code, gentlemen, I think I am warranted in 
saying, that it ought to he carrii^l into strict execu- 
tion. For it is so agreeable to reason, that even those 
who sutler by it, cannot charge it with injustice or 
cruelty ; so adapted to the common good, as to suller 
no folly to go unj)unishcd ; and yet so tender of the 
intirmities of human nature, as never to refuse an 
indulgence, where the safety of the public will bear it. 
It gives the gov(Mnment no power but of doing good, 
and restrains the peo})le of no liberty but of doing 



jjFr: f)r iriDca: svifTif. 201 

ovil. 'J'liis codfj of l.'iws, ;iti(l your ofFicfj, ^';f;nllf;rnc;n, 
nro tho means orn[)loycMl l>y socicjly to cotrifx;! rnon 
to hc'corno orderly ;jnfi |)f;fic(;ahlo mornber.s of tho 
community. Tlioy aro an address to tfio fears of 
men, wfien better f)rineif)lr;s }iave lost their influence 
upon tfie lieart and conscience. J>ut it is always 
to f)e reineml)erf!d, gentlemen, that punisfimrjnts by 
whieli innoeenrc is [)rotected, do not j_^ive Ii.-ibits oi 
morality. 'I'hey are inflicted to f)ut a sto[) to the 
co/isefjuene.es of vice, but thr;y do not remove the 
cause. If" ail, or even a. rriajority of the [icople of a 
state werr; ill-dis[)os(;d, the inflir-tion of f>unishment 
would aggravate, instead of fMiring the distr;mf)er. 
Tho sight of a jail, or even of a rnal(;far:tor on the 
gallows, will not make industrious a man wiio is 
inured to idle-nc^ss, or give sentimc^nts of honor to one 
f)ra.r:tised in dishonesty. There have been many 
tfiefts f:ornmittr;d under tfie gallows, during the tirrjc 
of a. public (;xecutir>n. A c/uU^ of pr;nal laws, how- 
f;ver excellent, is by no mf;ans a f)Owr;r adaptf;d to 
extirf)a.tf; the de[)ra.vif,y wliifJi f^ervades a grr;at por- 
tion of mankirifl. It <;orrr;cts the distf:mper, but does 
not r;raflieate it. This can only be aecomplished by 
the C'hristifin religion, which is a part of the common 
law of this state, and by far the noblf;st [)art. Its 
excellency and utility are <;x[)resHly rc^cognized in our 
constitution. Cliristianity is, irjdeed, the most bene- 
volent system that ever appearr;d among men. It 
})rcathc8 love and charity in every [>recept. It has 
an obvious tendency to check and restrain every ma- 
levolent and irregular j)assion, to streng^then and 
establish every benevolent, every virtuous principle, 



202 \AV\: ov .irmu: smith. 

to o\alt aiul |>orU\M our roasoiuiMi^ natmos. aiul to 
j>roinoto i>oaoo aiui i^ooil-will ainouti iiumi. Its inllii- 
onoe OH tho woltaro of sorioty has iu^\tM- hccn 
doubtoil hv any wiso man or ablo stati^sinan. 'VUv 
father ot* his ooiintrv has said, ami said truly, that it 
is tho uroatost pillar oi iuuuau happinoss. aud tho 
tirniost prop of tho dulii^s ot' luou ami oiti/ous. In 
short, roliuiou is as woll oaUailatiul to prouioto happi- 
ness in this world, as in tho uc^\t. The jullars ot' 
govermneut — o\ a tVoo ^oviMuuuMit. uuist Uv laid on 
tho t'umlaniontal prim^iplos of rc^li^iou, or tlu^ t'ahrio 
>vill never stauil. It will deueuerate into dospi^tisni, 
on the one hand, or anarehy anil lieontiousness on 
the other. It rolK)ws, that our institutions ' ol' reli- 
gion. learniuL;;. anil discipline, nuist be fostercnl ami 
oneoura^ed by the U\^islature. by courts of justice, 
and bv all i^ooil citizens, ami c>speciall\ by tlu>se in 
ollice, h\ those who have inlluence in society, ami 
by none more than by the rc^spcctable men wlu> ct>m- 
pose the uraml jurii^s : who, while tlu^v labor to 
briui^- to condii;!! [>unishment otlemlers ai^ainst the 
law, will with pleasuie promote every institution 
which has a temlenc\ to [>revent tlu^ conuuission of 
crimes. Virtue and industry are articlt^s that can bo 
manufactured, and the stock increased, at pleasure. 
It is surely better to reform mankiml, by i^iviuij: them 
ii'ood ilispositions, than to punish tluMu tor havini;- 



1 '• Willi ros|HH't to tlio SablKvth, in p:iitirul;vi\ it has Ihumi said, aiul. I 
t)olicvo justly, that it is an institution of ijroat politiral i-onsi'nuouoo, 
if it wore m^thini; nmro, and that thoro is a mmv t^xaot proportion Ito- 
twoon tho vioos and inunoralilios of a nation aiul Us rolaxalion or indil- 
lercucc in iho obsorvanco of tho Sabbath." 



MFK (J I j(ii>r;i: SMITH. 203 

l);if| ; to iriJikf; l}if;fri f/ood c.iti/.cns, .'Uid uHf-fuI friMn[>r;rH 
of .so(;j(;t.y, mtJicr lli.'iri .slmt. t,lir;rn ijf> in prisons, or 
t;ik<; aw;j.y tfioir liv*;M." 

I am awaro that, in tlir.so (|iiotJitionH tlif:ro is little 
wliirji cnn now striico tho n;a(l(;r ;ih new. 'J'lioy 
w(trit wriltf;n forty years a^^o, and tho j>ro^^rcHH of 
o})iniofi, ifn[)f;rr;(;f)tihl(i in ilia daily passa^^c of time, 
a[)[)e;jrs distinrjly marked, wlien (;xamin<;d after an 
interval of ho many years, 'i'lie l(;adin^^ (^liara.f^t(;r- 
istir. r>f these eliar^^r^s is thr;ir sound [)ractieal wisdom. 
I douhf. whether they rontain a, sin^de suggeHtiori of 
any momr;nt, whie,h (;xpr;rienr:(; has not. f:onfirmed ; 
ajid liiis will he der;m»;(J no mean f)rais(;, wIk.tj wo 
remeinher thai, they are not, made u[) of solemn tru- 
isms, hut, tha,t ma,ny f>f tfieir assertif>ns W(;re in ad- 
vanee of their time, a,nd, when first. ut.tr;r(;d, startled 
men l>y their novelty and holdness.' Miieh of what 
they contain relates to t(;mporary mat.t,(;rs, and it.H 
value has jjassed away with the abuses they were in- 
tended to eorrerj, ; |>ut mueh still remains, as fresh, 
as important,, and as worthy to be r(;fK;ate(] and en- 
forr.ed, as when the y^^overnrnf;nt, was first, estahhshe(J. 

I have now said the lit,t,l(; I am able to say of 
Judge Smilli's eonduf^t. u[>r)n the f)(;nch, fin(if;avr>ring 
to show hr)W [lis influence was exerted, rather than 



• Thf; followiri}^ \mHHn^i-., i'or itiKtancc, jirofliift'rd, I arn tolrJ, a, Hlrorifj 
Hf;nsaliori auiori^ lti<; r«:li4<iouM part of llirM-.ornrriunily, as H«;Uiri({ asirlc 
wtial iti'-y ha(i \)<:<:u accuslornrfl to coriHidcr llj«; fuiKJaincnlal rfahon for 
the lawH a^airiht \)rol';uui «w(;ariric,', l^laKpliciny, and Ui«j profarialion of 
t[i«! wihliaUi. " Socir;iy rJofH not. piinihli tlicsc rncr<;Iy, if at all, l<c- 
cansc tli«;y aro off»;nccH against the Dully, for ho can, and aKHurcdly 
will, avciipj'; hirns<;ir of IiIh cncfoios, hut hocanso th<ry arc of evil 
example, and attended with peruiciouu eili;;ct» on Hociety ithelf." 



204 i.iKK. OF .irnc^K smith. 

\\\n\{ ho aoluall} aoooinplisliod. His jiulirial dooi- 
sions, the a}>piopriato nionunu^il o{ Wis K^arnin^. iii- 
dustiv, and imolloclual power, havinii" boon pivpanul 
for a gonoiation that is [nissinii away, and not haviiiL; 
boon pubhshod so as to lake ihoir place ainoiin iho 
authoiilies o( the t'mio and por[>otuato thoinsolvos in 
other decisions growing out of them, couKl not now Ljivo 
a fair idea either of what lie was, or what Ik^ did. as a 
judge. Ilis works, like the last year's dew and rain, 
have gone into other Ibrnis, aiid will continue to act 
where their inlluence is least rccognizctl. in ilu^ more 
healthy tone and structure of society. It is a blessed 
thought, that the labors of the wise and true are not 
confined in their results to what the eye may see, 
but by the unseen hand of Providence are led on to 
issues of a vastly purer and more exteiuled good. 
Little can the ocean know o( the distant fountains 
from which its waters are supplied, and litUe can the 
fountains tell either what blessings their pure streams 
may dispense in their progress, or what an ocean lliey 
may fill. 

In one of Judge Siuith's latest writings he has 
given, in a half imaginary sketch, his idea of a judge. 
*"• I have often,-' he says, '* indulged my imagination 
in drawing a picture of Washington on the bench of 
justice, supposing opportunity and inclination had 
allowed him to acquire a competent knowledge of 
the law. Everything in and about him was judicial. 
A fine, graceful, and manly person — his manners 
reserved, though far from stern and forbidding. 
Candor and moderation are essential ingredients in 
the judicial character, and they were his in an enii- 



LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 205 

nont degree. He would have been far removed 
from the political judge, seeking popularity from his 
judicial decisions, and estimating the politics of 
j)artics before him, as ingredients to be weighed, as 
well as the evidence before him. His independence 
and impartiality would have soon been felt and ac- 
knowledged, even by the parties, as well as the spec- 
tators of the scene. His fortitude, firmness, and in- 
flexibility, as they are much wanted on the bench, so 
they would never desert him for a moment. His ut- 
most diligence would be employed, in investigating 
the evidence and the rule of law applicable to the 
case. He was exemplary for patience and prudence, 
and, when necessary, he could reprehend as well as 
f)raise. His strict regard to truth, his spotless integ- 
rity, his enlightened and liberal principles, his re- 
gard for the institutions of religion, morals, and edu- 
cation, his great purity of heart, his delicate and 
scrupulous sense of honor and honesty, — all these 
qualities would have placed him among the first, if 
they had not made him the very first, of judges." 

It would be difficult to find two men more unlike, 
in many respects, than Washington and the man 
who has given this sketch of his character. Yet in 
Judge Smith might be found, with some trifling ex- 
ceptions, and combined in different proportions, all 
the qualities which he has here ascribed to that ex- 
traordinary man. His countenance and bearing, 
though entirely unlike those of Washington, and 
often relaxed into the most humorous expression, 
were yet those of a man whom it might not be safe 
to approach with anything like disrespect. His keen 
18 



206 LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 

and penetrating eye, his whole bearing and deport- 
ment, were such as to give the impression of a mind, 
that "looked quite through the deeds of men," of a 
lofty independence, a proud consciousness of integ- 
rity, a courage, an inflexibihty of purpose, to be 
moved neither by the hope of gain, by flattery, nor 
threats. It is possible that his wit, while it sometimes 
enlivened a dull cause, may also at times have exas- 
perated a dull advocate, and that, by taking some- 
thing from the apparent dignity of the judge, it may 
also have taken something from the apparent weight 
of his opinions.^ Notwithstanding the quickness of 
his perceptions, and his ardent temperament, he was 
remarkably dispassionate in the trial of causes, and 
distinguished not more for his acuteness and learn- 
ing, than for the soundness of judgment, the candor, 
moderation, patience, and diligence, with which he 
went through with laborious and protracted investi- 
gations, whether relating to the evidence, or the rule 
of law applicable to the case. But it may be ques- 
tioned whether, after having satisfied himself, he 
was always equally patient in bearing with the ie- 



1 He was distinguished for his uniform courtesy to all the members 
of the bar, but in a few instances could not refrain from indulging in 
some little pleasantry at their expense. On one occasion, it is said, just 
as the lawyer was rising to argue his cause, the judge laughingly pro- 
posed, that he should let it go to the jury without argument ; " for," 
said he, " your cause is a good one, and I have no doubt the jury think 
so too. I am not quite so clear they will continue to think so after you 
have argued it." On another occasion a young lawyer, more conceited 
than wise, said, " May it please your honor, the prisoner is underwitted. 
Surely you will assign him counsel." " Yes," replied the judge ; "but 
then it must be such counsel as may be of service to him in that 
regard." 



LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 207 

dious processes required by slower minds, in argu- 
ments at the bar. I have the highest authority for 
saying, that, however decided he may have been in 
his views of a case, he was remarkably free from the 
imputation of ever assuming the part of an advocate, 
when charging the jury.' No man, who understood 
anything of his character, could hope to have the least 
influence with liim, through his political opinions. 
On that ground, no charge was ever seriously brought 
against him ; and the large vote by which his salary 
was increased, was an unequivocal testimony to his 
entire impartiality. I once asked Governor Plumer, 
who, from a warm personal and political friend, had 
become, in both respects, entirely estranged from 
him for many years, if he believed that politics ever 
had any influence on Judge Smith's judicial con- 
duct ; and he replied, in the most emphatic manner, 
" Never, never." Another man of the same political 
party with Governor Plumer, told me, that being upon 
a jury in high party times^ he watched the chief jus- 
tice closely with reference to this matter, " and I am 
confident," he said, " that party politics had no in- 
fluence upon him ; not the slightest." 

I never have seen the person who in his intellect- 
ual habits appeared to me so entirely the personifica- 
tion of justice. As a man, he had very decidedly his 
preferences and his dislikes, and in the choice of his 
associates was guided by them ; but as a judge, all 



1 It is said that a sailor once having heard a case tried, was asked 
what he thought of the pleas. He spoke well of the lawyers, but said 
he thought the white-headed rnan that sal up high at the end of the 
court-house, argued the best. 



208 LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 

these feelings were laid aside. No one had any- 
thing to iiopc from his friendship, or to fear fronfi his 
enmity. Tiie men were forgotten, the law and the 
testimony alone regarded. The influence on a 
neighbor, a brother, or even upon a child, could in 
no way affect his decision. In reading some of the 
reports, which he has drawn up in reference to per- 
sons of quick sensibilities, and who certainly had 
claims upon his kindness, I have sometimes felt as if 
he were needlessly cruel, while in fact he had only 
set entirely aside those feelings which, under such 
circumstances, cannot be indiilgcd without perverting 
the ends of justice. This severe regard to justice, 
with the keen intellectual powers which cut away 
everything irrelevant, and present the naked facts 
according to the evidence in the case, under the 
light of the great legal principles that should bear 
upon them, is, if I mistake not, the highest attribute 
of a judge, and it has been possessed by few men 
in a higher degree than by him. His manly intel- 
lectual vigor, his talent for business, his rare saga- 
city in judging of men and things, his great learning, 
his straightforward independence, and, above all, the 
spotless purity of his character, have placed him 
among the ablest of New England judges. 

" But I shall now," to use the words of Bishop 
Burnet, in his fife of Sir Matthew Hale, " conclude 
all that I have to say of him, with, what one ^ of the 
greatest men of the profession of the law, sent me 
as an abstract of the character he had made of him, 

1 Jeremiah Mason. 



LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 209 

upon long obsorval ion and much converse with him." 
" Judge Smitli's natural powers of mind were of a 
high order. With an ardent and excitable tempera- 
ment, he acquired knowledge easily and rapidly. 
After he commenced the practice of law, he always 
indulged himself freely in miscellaneous reading and 
studies ; and his attainments in literature and general 
knowledge were highly respectable. But the chief 
labor of his life was devoted to the study of the law. 
This he studied systematically as a science. As a 
counsellor and advocate, he soon rose to the first 
grade of eminence at the bar. Although successful 
at the bar, he was preeminently qualified for the 
office and duties of a judge. With an ample stock 
of learning, in all the various departments and 
branches of the law, well digested and methodized, 
so as to be always at ready command, he united 
quickness of perception, sagacity, and soundness of 
judgment. Disciplined by a long course of laborious 
study, he was able to bear with patience the most 
tedious and protracted investigations and discussions, 
to which a judge is so constantly subjected. The 
most distinguishing traits of his character were im- 
partiality and inflexible firmness, in the performance 
of all his judicial duties. As chief justice of the 
supreme court of New Hampshire, he found a sufli- 
ciently ample field for the exercise of all his talents. 
Before the Revolution, little had been done in the 
colony of New Hampshire to systematize the prac- 
tice of law ; and, for many years after the Revolu- 
tion, lawyers were seldom selected to fill the bench 
of even the highest courts. The consequence was, 
18* 



210 LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 

that the practice and proceedings of the courts were 
crude and inartificial; and the final determination 
of causes depended more on the discretion and arbi- 
trary opinions of the judges and jurors, than on any 
estabhshed rules and principles of law. This, of 
course, rendered judicial decisions vague and uncer- 
tain, the most intolerable evil of a bad administration 
of justice, and but slightly alleviated by the highest 
purity of intention in the judges. To remedy this 
evil, Judge Smith labored with diligence and perse- 
verance, by establishing and enforcing a more orderly 
practice, and by strenuous endeavors to conform all 
judicial decisions to known rules and principles of 
law. His erudition and high standing with the pro- 
fession, as well as with the public at large, enabled 
him to eflect much in this respect ; and to his labors 
the state is greatly if not chiefly indebted, for the pre- 
sent more orderly proceedings, and better administra- 
tion of justice." ' 



> There has been something quite remarkable in the longevity of those 
associated with Judge Smith, at the time he took his seat upon the New- 
Hampshire l)ench. Paine VVingate was born in May, 1739, and gradu- 
ated at Harvard College in 1759. He studied theology, and was a set- 
tled minister in Hampton Falls, from 17G3 till 1771. He then estab- 
lished himself as a farmer in Stratham. In 1787 he was chosen a repre- 
sentative, and in 1789 a senator in congress. From 1793 to 1795 he was 
again a representative. In 1793 he was ajipointed a judge in the supe- 
rior court, and there continued till May, 1809, when he was seventy years 
old. He continued to reside in Stratham, till the congregation, over 
which he had been settled, had become a part of the great congregation 
of the dead, and he had outlived all who were members of the college 
while he was there, all who were members of the house of representa- 
tives and of the senate, in which he had first taken his seat, and all, ex- 
cepting one, who were members of the court at the time of his appoint- 
ment to the bench. He died the 7th of March, 1838, having attained to 
the great age of ninety-nine years. His widow, with whom he had 



LIFI-] OF JUDGE SMITH. 211 

lived nearly three quarters of a century, was the sister of Timothy Pick- 
ering, and died when more than a hundred years old. 

Timothy Farrar was born in July, 1747, and graduated at Harvard 
College in 1767. At the commencement of the war, in 1775, he received 
by the same mail commissions as a major in the army, and as a judge 
in the court of common pleas. He became a judge, and in one or the 
other of the New Hampshire courts continued to hold the ofiice more 
than forty years. He was a modest, well-informed, conscientious, de- 
vout man; and now, having almost completed his ninety-eighth year, is 
enjoying the cheerful serenity which comes only from a well-spent life 
and a firm religious faith. 



CHAPTER VII. 

JUDGE smith's political FEELINGS JOSEPH S. 

BUCKMINSTER FISHER AMES LETTERS TO MRS. 

SMITH DEATH OF HIS YOUNGEST SON. 

Mr. Smith was appointed chief justice in May, 1802, 
and resigned the office in June, 1809. I have 
thought it best to give the account of his judicial Hfe 
and character unbroken by other events. At first 
his interest in poHtical afiliirs was very strong, and he 
was not without some of the fears, in which many of 
the best men at tliat time indulged, in respect to the 
great ex[>eriment of self-government, which had not 
then been fairly tried. The following extracts from 
two letters to William Plumer, dated 21st November, 
and 25th December, 1803, will show his feelings, 
althougli, from the half ironical style in which they 
arc written, their meaning may not be perfectly clear 
to a stranger. He inquires earnestly and minutely 
about the negotiation for Louisiana and the Floridas, 
which was then going on, and adds : " I do not 
know how it is with my brother sovereigns, the peo- 
ple, but really, considering that our servants abhor 



LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 213 

' sacracy,' and arc passionately fond of ' poblccsity,' 
(as S. would say,) it is astonishing how little is 
known of all these things. It has always been said 
that kings are ignorant. This is no doubt the case 
in monarchies. But is it applicable to republican 
kings ? If the sovereign people are ignorant, consid- 
ering that they are by no means destitute of passions, 
I fear they will make but sorry kings." 

" I am glad to find that federalism is at a low ebb 
with you. It is dead, and I sincerely wish it buried 
out of my sight. Don't flatter yourselves that it is 
ever to have a resurrection. Federalism can suit 
only a virtuous state of society. These times de- 
mand other principles and other systems. Abjure, 
then, that uprightness which cannot accommodate 
itself to events — which cannot flatter the people : — 
that stiff, ungracious patriotism, which professes to 
save the people from tiicir worst enemies, themselves. 
Form a union with some of the better sort of the 
democrats, and with some of the worst ; we want the 
former to increase our numbers, and the latter to do^ 
our lying. Federalism has been ruined for want of 
active partisans of this description. Be sure to en- 
gage Duane, Cheetham, and some of the most expert 
in this science, in the ancient dominion. Appropos 
to lying, secure Baldwin, he will be useful in the 
southern section. He is a prudent man, and knows 
the worth of everything. There is nothing he will 
not sell, and therefore he may be bought. We must 
have a new set of leaders. Pickering, Dexter, Ames, 
Tracy, Ellsworth, Griswold, Wolcott, Jay, Hamilton, 
King, Ross, Bayard, Marshall, Harper, W. Smith, (Slc. 



214 LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 

must be abandoned. They have had their day. 
They cannot be sufficiently accommodating. Let us 
have a goodly number of foreigners, they will always 
be favorites of the people. Let us have men who 
can relax their principles of morality as occasion may 
require, and adapt themselves to circumstances with 
as much facility as joiners open and shut their rules. 
Our old rulers in our new body would be like trees 
transplanted from a forest into a garden, whose 
branches it is diflicult to bend to the fancy of the 
gardener. We must liave more pliant men. But 
why should I doubt your skill to arrange this busi- 
ness ? It is sufficient that I have given a hint. 

" Is it possible that we can long stick together as 
a nation, when there is so little cement, and so much 
centrifugal force in this heterogeneous mass ? To 
keep a nation together, there must be national insti- 
tutions as well as a national government ; national 
courts, national militia, army, navy, a national debt, 
national taxes, national patriots. Now we have none 
of these things, except a national debt, and a little 
bit of a navy. 

" Themistocles, when desired at a feast to touch 
a lute, said he could not fiddle, but he knew how to 
make a small town a great city. Mr. Jeffi^rson can 
fiddle, and make models of dry docks, and all that, 
but he cannot make a number of small states a great 
nation. He can add to our territory, and to our 
numbers, but these additions tend only to diminish 
our strength. It never troubles a wolf, how large the 
sheepfold, or how many the sheep be. 

" Now don't say that these things will ever take a 



LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. ^15 

more favorable turn, that the good sense of the people 
will ever lead them to cherish national feelings and 
national institutions. It is idle to expect it, it is un- 
natural. The very end and design of national insti- 
tutions, is to counteract the local and selfish spirit of 
the people. Man is a gregarious animal, it is true ; 
but nature leads to small herds. Experience evinces 
that there is nothing so contrary to common sense, 
so repugnant to the principles of justice, freedom and 
humanity, but will pass at certain junctures, when the 
infatuation of party rage has turned the giddy brains 
of the unthinking multitude. This party spirit, like 
the poor, we have always with us. It will be, as it 
always has been, in the power of bold ambitious de- 
magogues to ride the people, by persuading them 
that they are in danger of being ridden. Nothing is 
more easy than to inflame the passions of the multi- 
tude ; it is easy to acquire their confidence, and easy 
to lose it. While in favor, there is nothing which 
the popular leader may not say or do ; and when not 
in favor, the wisest man in the state is the man who 
has the least influence." 

This interest in political matters gradually dimin- 
ished, as Judge Smith became more absorbed in his 
judicial duties, and in his letters for several years, I 
find hardly a passing reference to the political events 
of the day. Among other things, he amused himself 
by writing a few articles for the Anthology. He was 
first applied to in August, 1 805, by the Rev. Joseph 
S. Buckminster, who in his letter, says, " Your man- 
uscript volumes are well known by some of your 
friends here, to contain many titbits of literature, 



216 LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 

which would be liighly relished, if they could be per- 
mitted to garnish the pages of the Anthology." To 
this Judge Smith replied, 13th December, 1805. " I 
have pretty many trilles of the kind you allude to, 
but as the Anthology grows better, (it evidently 
docs,) and my manuscript trilles grow worse, you will 
readily perceive there is litdo prospect of their ever 
meeting. But still I am desirous of adding some- 
thing to the pages of the Anthology. This new zeal 
is produced by reading the Massachusetts Term lie- 
ports, by G. Williams. I have a fancy to try my 
hand at a review of this work. It is somewhat in my 
way. If no other person attempts it, and it meets 
your editor's plan, I will for next month, or the month 
after, send something which may be committed to 
the press or the flames, according to the verdict of 
the critics thereon. Let me hear from you. If I do 
not, this new zeal will soon Hag. If you approve, I 
shall stand engaged to make the attempt. 

'' I have finished your Fawcett, and like him. He, 
however, reminds me of Horace Walpole's criticism 
upon Johnson. ' He illustrates till he fatigues, and 
continues to prove after he has convinced : he charges 
with several sets of phrases of the same calibre.' But 
still he is a man of genius, a philanthropist, and a 
poet, and I should be gratified by the perusal of the 
second volume. I shall return it the first opportunity 
with Walker, who is well enough, and no better — 
nothing striking, lie docs not interest, amuse, or 
much inform me. I do not rise from him much dis- 
satisfied with myself, or much pleased with him ; ergo, 
he is not a good preacher. You see we Exeter peo- 



LIFE OF JUDGE SxMITH. 217 

pie are always ready to favor preachers with our 
opinions. It is no small proof of our benevolence, 
for we have hitherto derived no advantage from it ; 
and you may add, ' nor we.' " 

Mr. Buckminster's answer is dated December 18. 
" My dear sir : I was highly gratified by learning that 
you had not forgotten me, nor the Anthology, nor 
literature, in the intervals of relaxation from the Muscb 
severiores ; for it seems, as long as you had that vile 
judge's coif about your ears, it was impossible to 
make you hear even the sweet sounds of flattery. I 
am exceedingly happy that you propose to review 
Williams's Reports, and still more so, that you have 
already read them ; let not your ardor cool, I pray 
you, and believe me, the editors are fully sensible of 
the honor of the proposal. 1 am requested also to 
urge you to send a review of Tucker's Blackstone. 
If you do not own the book, it shall be sent on to 
you. Remember you have said, that whatever your 
hands find to do, you do with all your might, which 
we shall interpret, ' with all despatcfu' 

'• You are right in your conjecture respecting Faw- 
cett ; he is no mean poet. But it is remarkable that 
this man, who drew fuller audiences than any rational 
preacher, before or since ; whom Mrs. Siddons regu- 
larly attended, to learn elegance of gesture and elo- 
cution, and who was decidedly at the head of pulpit 
talents among the dissenters of Great Britain, abdi- 
cated his power at its very height, and is now retired 
as a private gentleman, in the neighborhood of Lon- 
don, where, with a handsome fortune, I doubt not, 
he feeds upon more substantial food than popularity. 
19 



218 LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 

With your leave, I think tliat Walpole's remark, 
when applied to Johnson's style, is utterly false, be- 
cause it is so very true of Fawcett's ; and every one 
must see that these two styles are utterly dissimilar. 
Walpole was a kind of quidnunc in literature, and, 
as I suspect, incompetent to relish the heavy but ad- 
mirable proportions of Johnson's style. 

" I am sorry to close so soon, but I am called out. 
I can only say, do not suffer your zeal to subside. 
' Ne exudas magnis.'' Mr. Ames * has not engaged 
to accept ; it is a great deal to be able to say he has 
not yet refused. Yours, with respect. J. S. B." 

The review was forwarded in February, 1806, with 
tlie accompanying note. " Dear sir : I have just finish- 
ed my critique on Williams's Reports, and send it 
because I can bear it no longer in my sight. I am 
heartily sick of it, of Williams, judges, law, and 
everything but the Anthology and its friends. If I 
did not think it would do some good, I would not 
send it at all. I have aimed at utility, and therefore 
have not spared labor ; I hate a flimsy, general criti- 
cism. I have tried to make it such as will be read ; 
and yet, if you knew how many severe things 1 have 
omitted, how many hard things I have softened, and 
flattering things I have inserted against my own opin- 
ion, as your attorney-generals draw the indictments, 
your opinion of my good humor and politeness would 
probably be somewhat increased. It being a new 
thing, I have indulged myself in taking broad ground. 
I could easily have written a book ; my mind has 

1 Fisher Ames had just been chosen president of Harvard College. 



LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 219 

teemed with conceptions, such as they are. I am 
like a bottle filled with new fermentable liquor. I 
have been ready to burst. Probably you will think 
this ' have been ' requires to be put into the present 
tense. I entrust it to your critical tribunal, as Pufl* 
did his tragedy to the players, with permission, which 
they used freely, of cutting out ad libitum. I have 
not noted my authorities for many of the sentiments 
and even the language in the margin, because I did 
not think it proper. The learned reader will easily 
know that many of the sentiments are not my own ; 
they will stand the test." 

The review ^ here spoken of, is written with great 
spirit, and attracted no small attention in its day. 
The criticisms, though severe, were of the kind to be 
useful, both to the judges and the reporter. The im- 
portance of law reports is thus regarded : " A correct 
history of what passes in courts of justice is of incal- 
culable advantage. With a single exception, it is the 
best of all books. It perpetuates the labors and sound 
maxims of wise and learned judges. It serves to 
make the path of duty plain before the people, by 
making the law a known rule of conduct ; and, for 
the same reason, it diminishes litigation. It has a 
tendency to limit the discretion of judges, and conse- 
quently increases liberty. Maxims of law are like 
landmarks. 

" Limes agro positus litem ut discerneret arvis." 

In respect to the style of reports, it is said, " Pro- 
lixity fatigues, while extreme brevity leads to ob- 

1 Review of first volume of Williams's Massachusetts Reports, con- 
taiaed in the Monthly Anthology for March, 1806. 



2*20 LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 

scurity. But there is a conciseness which is no 
enemy to perspicuity, and a prolixity wliich con- 
founds instead of enhghtening. Perhaps it is not in 
the power of a reporter to say just enough for some 
readers, without saying too mucli for others. But we 
are decidedly of opinion that modern reports are, in 
general, too prolix. Ivxpungc from them everylliing 
not material to the statement of facts, everything 
from the arguments which does not bear on the 
question, and everything given for the reasons of the 
decision which is wholly foreign or irrelevant, and 
many a huge folio would dwindle into a duodecimo. 
The eight or ten volumes of \ csey, Jr., would be re- 
duced to two or three ; Dallas would be reduced one 
half; Wallace to a few pages ; Cranch would make 
No. 1 of Vol. I. ; and Root would entirely disap- 
pear." 

The writer, however, does not attribute all the 
blame to the reporter. ^' We are also of opinion," 
he adds, " that the arguments of some of the judges 
might have been condensed with advantage to the 
public, and without doing any injury to the argu- 
ments themselves. We are not agreeably imj^ressed 
with * wordy eloquence ' from the bench, still less 
with attempts at eloquence without success. As the 
style of laws should be concise, i)lain and simple, so 
decisions of courts, which declare the law, should be 
neither tumid, ditfuse, nor rhetorical. The language 
of judges siiould correspond with the dignity of the 
olHce, and with the majesty of the subject. Great 
ornament is as ill becoming in the style of a ' reve- 
rend judge,' as a black gown turned up with pink 
is unbecoming his person. The sages of the law 



LIFE OF JUDGE SMITIf. 221 

should not for a moment be suspected of sacrificing 
precision to the harmony of periods. liOrd Mans- 
field was a scholar and an orator ; but his eloquence 
at the bar, in tfje senate, and on the bench, were as 
unlike each other, as the eloquence of which we 
complain is unlike either. When our jud<_^es shall 
have taken as much piuns in forming opirjions in the 
cases before them, as J.ord Mansfield always did, and 
shall have spent as many years in the acquisition of 
polite and elegant literature as he did, we will not 
object to their being as eloquent on the bench as his 
lorfisliip. It will no doubt subject us to the sus|)icion 
of dulness ; yet we shall not scruple to declare, that, 
in a judge, we prefer labor to genius, and pains- 
taking to ingenuity." 

lie then illustrates his remarks by comments on 
particular cases, and adds : " Other decisions might 
be mentioned as exceptionable ; but we forbear en- 
tering further into the subject. If the learned judges 
should be disposed to think that we have already 
gone too far, we trust that we shall have their for- 
giveness, when they consider that we have difl'ered 
less in opinion with the court than they have differed 
from each other. We can assure them, that the ob- 
servations we have made have not proceeded from a 
desire, on our part, to depreciate their learning or 
talents, for which we have tfio most cordial respect ; 
nor with a view to lessen tfie value of Mr. W.'s 
labors; for we believe they will prove advantageous 
to the public, and honorable, we sincerely wish we 
could add profitable, to him ; but princii)ally that we 
may have an opportunity of expressing our sincere 
19* 



222 LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 

conviction, that our system of jurisprudence is radi- 
cally defective, and that we siiall never have any 
thoroughly-examined and well-digested determina- 
tions — decisions which will stand the test of time, 
and serve as permanent and fixed rules, so long as 
the judges, the depositaries of our law, are wandering 
through the state, without any fixed or permanent 
place of abode. 

" The old proverb, that a rolling stone gathers no 
moss, is not more true than that a court, constantly 
in motion, settles and establishes no principles of law. 
When the principal business of a court is to travel, 
and to retail the law in every county town, is it rea- 
sonable to expect deep research, nice discrimination, 
or copious discussion on legal questions ? Let our 
readers figure to themselves our supreme judicial court 
in session at Lenox, for example. Questions of law 
and trials of fact arc blended together on the docket. 
Amid the tumult and bustle necessarily incident to 
trials by jury, counsel occupied and teased with clients, 
witnesses, &c., it is easy to see how questions of law 
will be argued, even by eminent counsel. The judges, 
long absent from their families, can hardly be suppos- 
ed to be perfectly at ease in their minds. Denied all 
access to books, and fatigued with the labors of the 
day, and liable, from their situation, to constant inter- 
ruptions, they cannot so much as have an opportunity 
of communicating their sentiments, or of hearing one 
another's reasons. On Saturday morning they must 
pronounce judgment. Under such circumstances, is 
it not cruel to exact an opinion, and ridiculous to 
expect a mature and well-digested one ? The first 



LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 223 

thoughts which occur to a sensible, and, if you please, 
to a learned lawyer, on legal questions, may be reason- 
able, we grant ; but they may not be so reasonable, 
so just, as after-thoughts. The conjectural positions 
of natural reason, if not fortified by precedents, if not 
confirmed by elementary writers, or if they are not the 
result of much previous study and patient investiga- 
tion, are always to be distrusted. A judge should think 
reasonably, but he should think and reason as one long 
accustomed to the judicial decisions of his predeces- 
sors. He should be well versed in history, and espe- 
cially in the history of the constitution, laws, manners, 
and customs of his own country. The study of New 
England antiquities, if we may be allowed the expres- 
sion, is a necessary qualification of a New England 
judge. 

" We believe it is in the power of the legislature to 
lay the foundation of a system of jurisprudence which 
in a few years may even equal that of Great Britain. 
To accomplish this, it is indispensable that the trial of 
facts and law should be separated. The former should 
be in each county, and the latter in one, or, at most, 
in two or three stated places. There is, in the nature 
of things, no more reason why questions of law should 
be determined in each county, than that the statutes 
should be framed and enacted in each county. County 
lines have nothing to do with either ; and it is just as 
proper that the legislature should be ambulatory, as 
that a court, not of trials, but of law, should be so." 

Most of the suggestions thrown out in this article, 
with respect to the judiciary of Massachusetts, and the 
mode of reporting cases, have been since adopted, to 



224 LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 

the great and manifest improvement of both. What 
influence the article itself may have had, it is not 
possible to determine. The following letter from 
Mr. Buckminster, shows how it was received at the 
time. 

April, 13, 1806. " Dear sir : It is not less in con- 
sequence of my own inclination, than in pursuance of 
the request of the Anthology Club, that I have now 
set down to return you thanks for the communica- 
tion with which you favored us, and which has ap- 
peared, (I hope to your satisfaction,) in the last num- 
ber of the Review. It excites great speculation here, 
especially among the bar, and there is not a dis- 
sentient voice on the subject of its great excellence 
and importance. The lawyers were, at first, sadly 
puzzled. Some attributed it to Mr. Parsons, others 
to Charles Jackson ; but at length some of the wisest 
of them were satisfied, from internal evidence, that it 
was Judge Smith. S, thinks this cannot be true, 
for ' Smith and he are very good friends, and he would 
not have spoken of him in such terms.' The expres- 
sion, ' wordy eloquence,' he takes to himself. You 
have put your hand to the plough, and must not look 
back. Pray favor us with something else — Wil- 
son's works, if possible. You know not under how 
great obligations you have laid us." 

Twenty years after this correspondence. Judge 
Smidi, wrote the following sentence: " Mr. Buck- 
minster, (all the world knows, I mean the younger,) 
in his words, looks, manners, but especially in the pul- 
pit, had a spirit beatified before its time." How beau- 
tifully does this describe the impression made by Mr. 



LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 225 

Buckminster, even from his earliest years. I do not 
know that I ever witnessed anything more affecting 
than the testimony given to his influence many years 
after his death, at a pubHc gathering of the graduates 
of the academy at which he received his early educa- 
tion. The afternoon had been spent in delightful re- 
collections. Former days were revived, and the harsh 
features of life effaced, when one, known through the 
nation more than any other man now living for the 
power of his intellect, rose, and after referring in lan- 
guage of touching pathos to other benefactors of his 
youth, spoke with overpowering tenderness of him, 
his early friend, " whom he could not think of with- 
out strong emotion, nor mention without tears." 
It was while Judge Smith was on the bench, July 4, 

1808, that he lost his friend Fisher Ames, for whom 
he cherished always the warmest admiration. It is 
much to be regretted that no further memorial of his 
delightful domestic qualities has been preserved ; for 
the account prefixed to his works is rather a brilliant 
essay upon his genius, than a sketch of his life. In 

1809, Mr. Cabot collected many of his letters, with a 
view of preparing a volume from his familiar corres- 
pondence ; but the undertaking was not carried out, 
and instead of a monument, has proved to be a grave. 
Mr. Ames, I have been told, first greatly distinguished 
himself in the Massachusetts convention that was 
holden to decide upon the constitution of the United 
States. Samuel Adams had many doubts about the 
biennial election of representatives in congress, and 
asked earnestly why that provision had been made ? 
Mr. Ames rose in reply, and looking far down into 



326 LIFE OF JrnOF SMlTir. 

the t'lituro. with all iho t'orvid oKx^uonoo for which ho 
was aftoiwauls distinmiisluni, jMcturod out the olVoct 
ot' the imiltipliod olootions that wore proposed. This 
he did with such power that, when he sat down, Mr. 
Adams replied that he was entirely satisfied, and would 
make no further objection. But brilliant as was Mr. 
Ames's public career, he was no less remarkable t'or his 
social and domestic virtues, for the purity of his lite, 
the warmth of his atVections, and that i^cnial oveitlow 
of spirits which is so delight t'ul in the daily intercourse 
of friends, and which, often carrying- him beyond his 
strenizth. left him lani^uid and depressed. It was Mr. 
Smith's business, as we have seen, in the winter and 
spring of 171X>. to preserve his triend iVom the too 
great excitements of social intercourse. But ii was a 
task beyond his ability; for Mr. Ames's remarkable 
conversational gifts were too attractive to be resisted, 
and his unwillingness to turn his friends away was 
such that, ag-ainst Mr. Smith's remonstmnces, he would 
often get up from his bed, engiige in conversation with 
as much earnestness, spirit and apparent vigor, as if 
he had been in perfect liealth, and then, when the 
company had withdrawn, would retire to his bed ut- 
terly exhausted. 

"While both were members of congress" — I 
use the language kindly furnished by ^Fr. Webster — 
'* there was quite an unusual friendship and intimacy 
between them. Mr. Smith entertained the most sin- 
cere alVection for the social equalities oi' ^Ir. Ames, with 
the greatest admiration for his elo(|uence, imagination 
and high tone of national ieeling. On the other hand, 
Mr. Ames found in Mr. Smith a lawyer, on whose 



LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 227 

learning he could safely lean, a sound politician of the 
Washington school, and a companion always gay, 
cheerful and entertaining. The more sanguine tem- 
perament of Mr. Ames brought with it occasionally 
hours of depression, as well as brighter hours of hope 
and confidence. Mr. Smith, on the contrary, was 
more equable, and often chased away clouds which 
the state of affairs seemed to be gathering over the 
brow of his friend. No two men, indeed, during the 
whole period of Mr. Smith's service in congress, were 
more united in their sentiments and their purposes, or 
exercised a more genial and kindly influence on each 
other ; an influence the stronger, be it remembered, 
because they had a common bond of sympathy, in the 
deep reverence they both entertained for their great po- 
litical chieftain, President Washington. Their inti- 
macy was long remembered by those who witnessed it. 
It is not a great many years since a gentleman, going 
to congress from New Hampshire, was asked by one of 
the old officers of the house of representatives, who 
had removed with the government from Philadelphia 
to Washington, whether he knew Mr. Smith, add- 
ing : ' I remember him well in the time of President 
Washington, always coming to the house arm-in-arm 
with Fisher Ames.' " 

The following extracts, in addition to those already 
given, are from the few letters that have been pre- 
served out of the many that Mr. Ames wrote to Mr. 
Smith, but they will serve to show the sort of inti- 
macy that existed between them, as well as his pecu- 
liar mode of feeling and writing. 

" Boston, March 13, 1798. My dear friend : Do 



828 LIFE OF jrPGF. SMITH. 

not wroni;- ino so iiuicli as to su|>poso that my Kiml:: 
delay in answoring your letter, (so t'lill ot' wit and 
friendship.) arose from any ileeliiu^ of my reLjanl. I 
had resolved to write before I had yours. 1 have 
been busy, siek, and stupid t'or four weeks. 1 have 
been stu[>efyin^" in the supreme eourt in this plaee, 
abusing;- the health I have aequired, and niarriui^ the 
prospect of its t'uture improvement. No experience 
has been so decisive of my incompetence to any- 
thing that excites, or retjuires nuich enjAai^ement of 
miml, as that which I havc^ latc^ly had. ^'et I am 
not dead, and hope to inhale health with the air and 
repose that next week oilers at Dedham. Fate is 
heedless of my }nayers, which are, to be in a situa- 
tion to rear pii^s and calves, and feed chickens at 
Dedham, the world lorgetiiui::, by the world forgot. 
Savini;- always, I would not forget n\y friends, nor 
have them forget nie ; saving also the right, at all 
times, to rise into a rage ag^ainst the politics of con- 
gress, and a few more savings, all equally moderate 
and reasonable. In serious sadness, I wish to rest 
from all labor of the mind that wears out the body, 
and I would do it if I could eat Indian pudding 
without drudging in court. You, I ho})e, enjoy good 
fees, cinn ilignitate — happy you certaiidy are, and 
you know it. I have heard that ^Irs. Smith had a 
long illness when she was coniined. I have not 
been able to learn how she is of late, and I will 
thank you to otVer to her my best w ishes and regards. 
I salute my daughter-in-law,' whose merits and ac- 

> At this time six months old. 



LfKi: OF jijix.i: sMiTif. 229 

complisfirrionfs nro so rar<; JUjrJ cxcj-McjiU My f;l(ifjHt 
Sf)n is Jit. S[>rin;_^fi';M; JinH fuis t}if;rf; cnst. Iiis oyon on ?i 
young lady of tiiat, lovvri, f>iJt. my sororifl Hon is at. 
proHorit \ii\<in^'.i//(:(\, and is offorcd to you as tho f>art.y 
to Ih^' troaty." 

*' Jioston, Novonjbcr 22, 1798. My doar friond : 
Sooin^f Mr. ('oniicr in an offico, I stoal a rnornont 
from t,lif; din of tlio suprf;mo f:ourt, sitting horo, to 
tell you f am alivo — pfotty wrJl — \(^ry glad to hoar 
from you and your l>f;ttor half, as I do by Mr. Con- 
nor. VVrilo to mo, arifi kiss rny daught.or-in-law, tfio 
princoss. I for futuro sfjouso is a fino fat boy. an 
raggod anri sauf:y as any dr-mooral in Portsmoutli. 
You havo nono in l'ixotr;r. 'I'hoy abound in JJod- 
ham, tfiougfi tho lif^orty ]>()](; is dowrj. \olson has 
boa ton tfio I'Vonoh floot. l)o not griovo for tfiat. 
Wfiat aro wo to fJo ? 'J'ho dovil of sodition is im- 
mortal, and wc, the saints, havo an ondloss struggle 
to maintain with him. Your stato is fraa onough 
from his imps and influonoo, to givo joy and cour- 
age to two J.angdons. I really wish to soo you and 
Mrs. Smith. Ood bless you. Yours." 

" Dodham, Fobrufiry IG, IriOl. My good friend : 
It is bold in you, sinner as you aro, to ask arjjthing 
of me. You did not answer my letter about writ- 
ing to I'on Jjourne, nor a former letter, nor those 
letters I did not write, Ijiit which you know I had 
regard enough for yoii to write. I have your judge- 
letter ; and with all those demerits unatonod, f wrote 
for you to Dexter, roriuosting him to sfiow it to Mar- 
sfiall.and to do all that he can possif>ly do for you. I 
heap coals of fire on your unworthy head. liut I will 
20 



'230 LIFE OF JUDGE S^IITU. 

not allow my rage to proceed any furl her : on the 
contrary, I thank you for early asking my influence, 
which, as one of the Essex junto, you know is great, 
in tavor of your appointment. I did not write to 
Mr. Adams, which piece of neglect he will excuse, 
and I hope you will. I have read, and I admire, his 
book. And if you will write a great book on ten- 
ures, as you promised, I will buy it, and, if possi- 
ble, read it. I am your friend, and will exert myself, 
you see, to serve you. Seriously, I wish you a 
judge, tliough you have not gravity. I wish to see 
you, to give you pudding in my house, and to tell 
you with the warmth of feeling of 1796, that I am, 
court sitting, very busy, your friend, &.c.-' 

The letter from which the following is taken, was 
written soon after the United States' circuit court was 
abolished. 

^* The second French, and first American revo- 
lution, is now commencing, or rather has advanced 
two sessions of the national assembly almost, for 
the message will decide and do the w^ork of the 
pending session. To demolish banks and funds, not 
directly, but under plausible pretexts, all false and 
cheating, all founded on experienced state policy, 
will be the first act, though the death-blow may not 
be mven to either of them till the fifth, which will 
be three or five years later. To amend the constitu- 
tion, and give to Virginia the power to reign over us, 
is the next step. To do this, new activity will be 
used to raise and strengthen the factions in each 
state, and to drill and equip them as subs to Vir- 
ginia. The newspapers will lie and declaim as usual. 



LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 231 

and more than usual. Unprintcd lies will bo spread 
abroad, carefully steering ofT from post-roads and 
offices, as pedlars carry their packs far out of the 
way of large shops. Emissaries, such as David 
Brown was, will be pedestrian and equestrian car- 
riers of the popular mail. This is doing in all the 
obscure parts of New I'^ngland, and the spirit of New 
England will be as much perverted soon, as it is 
flattered now. I'lven Connecticut, so ardent in fed- 
eralism, will decline from her high station, and 
learn politics of Abraham Bishop. I am serious — 
a party inactive is half-conquered. The feds main- 
tain twenty opinions, the best of which is quite 
enough to ruin any party. ' Let the people run them- 
selves out of breath — all will come right. There 
is no occasion for us to do anything.' Others say, 
^ we despair, nothing can be done with eflfect.' Not 
unfrequently the same persons maintain both opinions. 
" Let us be precise in deciding our object : first, 
negatively ; it is not the regaining of the supreme 
power. The end is, security against the approach- 
ing danger — or the best security, if not perfect, 
that is attainable. What are the means ? Not 
indispensably that we should again have a majority ; 
it is enough to have a strong minority. That minor- 
ity need not be very numerous, but it should be 
powerful in talents, union, energy and zeal. It 
should see far, and act soon. At this moment we 
actually hold sway in three of the New England 
states. Vermont has a good governor, and many 
good feds — almost one half the legislature. R,hode 
Island should be wrong, and lend the dirty mantle 



232 LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 

of its infamy to the nakedness of sans culotism. 
New Jersey and A"e^y York are not hopek^ss. Dela- 
ware and Marykind are not yet as nuicli emptied 
of federalism as Pennsylvania is. Say little of the 
more southern states, though federalism sprouts in 
all of them — it is, I own, however, with such a 
sickly yellow vegetation, as the potatoes show in 
winter in a too warm cellar. Now sum up the forces, 
and surely we are not to despair. We have a strong 
minority in numbers ; of talents, enough ; of zeal, 
little, but more may be excited ; and the approach- 
ing danger, if duly represented, would excite it all. 
Self-defence exacts from us a union closer than ever, 
and supplies to our party the energy that party alone 
possesses — an energy tliat is inconsistent with lan- 
guor or inaction in the ciiief men who inspire and 
guide it. 

" As the newspapers greatly influence public opin- 
ion, and that controls everything else, it is not only 
important, but absolutely essential, that these should 
be used with more eflect than ever. Let all federal 
papers be kept up, as high as at present. But let a 
combination of the able men throughout New Eng- 
land be made, to supply some one gazette with such 
materials of wit, learning, and good sense, as will 
make that superior to anything ever known in our 
country, or in any other, except the English Anti- 
Jacobin, in 1797 and 1798. To pretend to supply 
with such materials twenty federal papers, is absurd 
and impracticable. But instead of educated printers, 
shop-boys and raw schoolmasters being, as at present, 
the chief instructers in politics, let the interests of 



LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 233 

the country be explained and asserted by able men, 
who have had concern in the transaction of affairs, 
who understand those interests, and who will, and 
ever will when they try, produce a deep national 
impression. The pen will govern, till the resort is 
to the sword, and even then ink is of some import- 
ance, and every nation at war tliinks it needful to 
shed a great deal of it. As matters are actually 
arranged, the Palladium must be that paper ; it must 
have, it must have by requisition, the contributions 
of the mind from those who are rich in that sort of 
treasure. One or two of that gazette ought to be 
crowded into every small town, and more into larger 
towns throughout New England. It must be so 
supplied as to need no helps in money, but to force 
its own progressively increasing circulation. It should 
clearly and aptly state the merits of every question, 
tell every inquirer exactly what he wants to know 
about the public business, and in the manner that 
will impress him — in the manner that will confound 
and disarm jacobin liars. The principles, the cir- 
cumstances, the effects of measures should be un- 
folded, summarily for the most part, but often by 
profound investigation and close argument. Busi- 
ness paragraphs should be short, clear, and frequent. 
Occasional essays should appear, to examine specu- 
lative democratic notions, which yet prevail, and 
almost all of which are either false or pernicious, 
but often mischievous conclusions from admitted pre- 
mises. Wit and satire should flash like the electrical 
fire, but the Palladium should be fastidiously polite 
and well bred. It should whip jacobins as a gen- 
20* 



HiM \.\\v. ov JintJK s^trni. 

tliMnnn woiiM :\ cluiuwcx-swvcpvw al anus 1(mi^1Ii, 
ami ktH^piiii; alool \\o\\\ Ins s«)ol. I>\ a\ oiiliiif^j 
coaist' vulvar }>luascs, it would roni'iliatt^ i\stoiMn, 
and appear witli an umisiial diiAiiily lor a lunvspapor 
hc'uvj;. 

" KoiiMi;'!! nrws should he skdlullv (^xluMlrd. not 
in tlu^ junihltul map thai is usual. LitiMatuic tlt^- 
mands tho it^vu^w (>( books, and t\'>:p('iiall\ ol all 
nowspapiMs, so tar as lluMf mMUMal scojh' or am ic- 
inarkaMi^ piMJormam-t^s r(M|uiio it, Ai^iiiuhuK^ should 
hnvo a shaiw owcc a \vtu>k al K asl, oi tho |>apor. 
Morals, mamuMs, si'hools, and such disnuisitiiMis as 
i;(MUMal kno\vK>di;o would supph , sht>uld l)t* rurnlshtHl 
with rt\i;ularit\ . And tor all tlusi' labors, various 
classes ot al)lo nu^i shouKl IxMiii^apul to supph thoso 
various do[>artmtMits. Init tor tho supoiinlondonco 
nnil j>iin(Mpal t-ondm-t of thi^ papor, only a tow slu>nld 
bo soloetoil, ami tho i>tluMs sh(>nld hoKl thomschos as 
tt body oi rosiM\t\ lo stop ui trosh whon tho iVont- 
rank i;rows wt\uy. Only six abK* intMi in tlu» dill'or- 
ent brant'hos ol' iluMnulorlakim;— I nu\in six in tlu^ 
wholo — would socuri^ its suo(H\ss. Mol''ini;al 'riniu- 
bull, 1 ho[H\ would bt^ om\ as \\c is llcnncs ranrirus. 
Will you think ol" tlu^sc^ things? Will you mako 
Ihosc^ idiMs known in conlidonco (o (lOViMiior (Jilmaii 
and Mr. Poabody ? >\ ill you rontributo with your 
pon lo such discussions o{' law or constitution, or 
such plcasanlri(^s as yt>u can easily forward io War- 
ren Dutton, l'iS(|. ? Will you spread tlu\si^ opinions 
ainoni;' your K^ulnii* i^oiul nuMi, and hasliMi tluar de- 
liberate judgment on the only means to savt» our 
country ? All this beiiii;* done, and well done in 



f.IFK OP .ir,l)<,l. 



cvf;ry hIuIo, l,ljf;n )';l, llif; hml'lni;^ ij[) tlif; Ht;it': Mov<;rri- 
ril(;/itH f)0 coriHi<l<;rf;fJ ;)H iinporhinf. f>rflf;r;il ol>j<-.f:t. 
JiOt HiJltO justice; l>f; fn.'i'l'; st;iM«; .'ififl <:i\'t:i:\\\'<:. Lf;f. 

tfio fir.Mt. tn<:ti \>(; pf;r;-iu;i'I';'l to t.-iko pl.iff;-; jn tfio st.ito 
aHHOfnhli':s. All tliiH ffiiisf. h<; flooo. or ;jII will ho in 
confusion. ;ififl tli;il y.\n-J:<\\\y. l''oHor;jli-:rn f:;inriot |jf; 
loHt. or (iofJinr; frujfJi lowor, wilfiout. losinj.^ .-ill. I'or 
thr>ijj.^li now f»;irlioH would Hm:(',<:':<\ ic.<\<.ru\ .irifl );j- 
r;ol*ifj, yol, tlio *;xtinfJio/i of f'.flor.'ili ,rn woiiM ho 
followofl \)y tlio ruin of t.lio wino .'irid \i<><t(\. 'I'fio 
orjiy pfirfios tli.it, wouM rlno \\\i fjftorw.'irds, will ho llio 
Hufxiivi ,ions of \\\<: viotor-; - - flio rohhor-! 'ju;irrolinj/ 
af)Out, Uioir plundor — all wirJ<';(i. l>OHj>onrlonr:y, 
iri;ir:tif>n, (]<;rnoor;itif: K?ifi;.ojinf; notioriH, or fodornl <]o- 
HjKiir, .'iro to ho ronounr,r;(|. I vvrifo ;is fiint. ;jh I r:;in, 
and ;jrn \\\ ;i. fiurry to ;_^r;t. dono. \ow you \u'.yy t;dk, 
for J rofjuiro no rrH>ro of your at.torition. Vour Jifloc- 
tionato frionrl. j'\ A." 

l''ow rrjon luivo hoon nioro li')[>f'y in ifioir dornontic 
rolfitiouH, tfiJin .lud;.^o Smith. Hin oJjildron. c>nr: 
d.'jij;'litor and two hodh, woro .'ill r-.hildron of unu:u;j| 
inir;r(;Hl. and [>rorniHf;. JfiH lr;ttf;rH to hin wif'o ;iro full 
of r:f>fj,sidonjto fondornoHH, Jiud tfio ;illusif>nH to ihoir 
lit.tlo on<:H hIiovv how fondly tho [jlonnant. irn;iC'^OH of 
fiorfi'; woro ofir^risliod f>y liirn, whon or;rMJ[^iorl \ty his 
oflioiiil rlutioM. '• IIof»kintr>n, 9tfi May, IH(j:j. f 
wIhIi I r,oij|d Kj>on<J tho fJ;iy with you and yoiir littio 
triho. Instojjd of yrju I h;i.vo VVin^^ntf; ; in.stojjd of 
Ariiina and VVillinrn, tho [^hiintif}" and <lorond;int. ; 
ifjsto-ad of Jorf;rni;j|j, .-wool innor.ont. r:roafuro, lyiri^^ 
witriciHSOH ; for I am irj tho midst, of a (:,\m~.<:. If I 
tfiouf/ht thr; Haid Ariann. Williiim u.n(\ Joromiafj w(;ulrj 



236 LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 

resemble any of the throe hundred people now before 
me, excepting some eight or ten, it would make me 
very sad." 

^' Keene, 2r2d October, 1803. I am really sorry 
for my friend Gordon. Husband and wife should 
always die together. But what puts dying in my 
head ? May it be far away. And may it be away 
from our little pratUers ; may they long prattle, and 
may some of the bar, who now prattle, prattle no 
more. The jury, I see, most heartily join me in that 
prayer." 

"Haverhill, lltli October, 1805. My dearest 
wife : Mr. Adams unexpectedly gives me an o])por- 
tunity of writing to you. He does not call you to 
my recollection. I have neither forgot you nor yours, 
many hours, since I parted from you a fortnight ago 
yesterday. I have been much of my time alone, and 
part of the time in a dreary wilderness, and you have 
accompanied me in ascending and descending the 
White Hills, which are sublime enough to merit the 
name of mountains. They put my old acquaintance, 
(I believe I may say my old friend,) the grand Mo- 
nadnock, fiir into the back ground. They are very 
lofty and very numerous ; and though they sink un- 
der Carrigain's description, they are really very sub- 
lime. You and I should have enjoyed the j)rospect 
exceedingly. 1 can't help thinking that people bred 
on mountains or used to them, have more genius and 
more understanding than the inhabitants of the low 
country, such as ^=****, Slc. Last evening, I heard 
from you, in a letter from Colonel Rogers. He only 
says you were better than when I left you, and 



LIFE OF JlJDdi: SMITH. 237 

the rest of the family well. I vvisii he could have 
said the latter of you ; however, it is something to be 
better. If you will promise to continue growing bet- 
ter, I shall almost find it in my heart to forgive you for 
not being well. Seriously, my dearest love, there is 
nothing I so much desire in this world as your health 
and happiness ; and this I am sure you can say in 
return of your husband. Heaven grant our mutual 
prayers may be heard, and as to everything else, I 
will be resigned, and almost iiidiflerent. I am sorry 
you could not write when Colonel Jlogers dirl. I 
am sure you could not, or you would have written. 
It was something to receive my old surtout irjimedi- 
ately from home ; I was going to sny immediately 
from your hand. It would add much to its value, if 
this were the case. Mr. Ad;irns sets out immediately 
for home, and yet T do not wish to accompany him. 
The business he goes on is indeed unpleasant. You 
have, no doubt, heard all about it. We despise 
many, almost hate some, and love a few of our fellow 
mortals, and yet we are very dependent on this same 
motley crew, and the worst of them can make us 
very miserable. Is it not a matter of grateful recol- 
lection, that, among all the rogues with whom I have 
been professionally and officially concerned, no one 
has done us any harm ? I am almost ready to say, 
God bless them. I forgot to tell you that I am very 
well, and have been vastly well ever since I left Ex- 
eter. If this should continue to be the case, don't 
you apprehend I shall set my face reluctandy towards 
the east? If you will meet me at Amherst, I think 
you will have no great difficulty in dragging me to 



238 LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 

Ariana, William and Jeremiah. Give my love to 
them and the girl, and believe me entirely your Jere- 
miah Smith." 

In another letter he said : " Our friend died this 
morning at five o'clock. As she suffered greatly the 
last two days, I was glad to hear that she was re- 
lieved. The family suffered extremely." A few 
days later he said : " We had a great funeral — large 
company, much grief, and the mourners well dressed. 
Much time had been taken for the purpose. O 
pride, pride ! thou minglest with our sorrows as well 

as our joys I long very much to see you 

and the two sweet little fellows that are prattling at 
your side. God bless you, my dearest love." 

" Amherst, Tuesday, twelve o'clock, November 4, 
1806. I beg, my dearest love, that you would attend 
particularly to the hour mentioned above, (twelve 
o'clock,) because the few lines I sent by Mr. Spar- 
hawk, were dated at eleven. You may be sure I had 
not then read your sweet letter, by that lump of earth, 
Dr. Tenney. Strange that a letter carried in his 
pocket-book thirty hours, had not lost all its spirit, and 
what is infinitely dearer to me, all its love ! 1 have a 
great mind that he should lose his cause. I perceive 
that it was his fault that you are not now with me. 
Can you conceive of my disappointment, when he pre- 
sented himself at my lodgings, and alone, just as I was 
going to court this morning ? Judge Wingate had 
informed Mr. Charles II. Atherton, on his arrival, 
and Mr. A. informed me that Dr. Tenney would be 
up in the evening, with Mrs. Smith. This was un- 
expected happiness, and therefore made the greater 



LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 239 

impression. I began to love tlie doctor, because he 
was to be so near you. I can't describe to you how 
dehghted I was at my prospects. Nine o'clock 
came, and ten, and eleven, and I retired to my soli- 
tary cell, not to sleep — that was impossible for 
many hours, but to think what time you set out — 
how you parted with the children — what accidents 
befell you by the way — where you lodged, and at 
what hour I should see the chaise arrive this morn- 
ing. If the doctor is satisfied with the reception I 
gave him, he is more insensible than you can con- 
ceive of. I neither inquired for his health, nor that 
of his wife, but where you were. He said he could 
not procure a carriage strong enough. Everything 
with him goes by weight, and so, I dare say, he 
thought of you as of one hundred and fifty pounds 
of lead. Well, surely we are differently made, and 
I hope and trust of different materials. I shall hate 
and despise Exeter, the longest day I live, for having 
weak horses and slender carriages. But I will not 
be deprived of what has thus got possession of my 
whole heart. I will send my horse and chaise for 
you, and you must be with me ; I shall be sick if 
you do not. P. S. — Dr. Tenney has just called on 
me, (two o'clock,) and makes bad worse. He says 
you sent word to him on Saturday, to know how he 
was coming ; and he sent back word that he would 
carry any letter or package to me. It seems it never 
occurred to his feeling heart, that the best thing he 
could bring me was you, and that you could have 
any wish to come and comfort me, in my labors 
here." 



240 LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 

'' Woclnesilay, two o'clock, P. M. I have this mo- 
ment received at the post-otlice your letter of yester- 
day, and am as happy as happy can be, at the pros- 
pect of seeing you Saturday night. What a charm- 
ing conclusion to a troublesome week. I had just 
made mv arrangements to send for you to-morrow. 
I had eni2a£ied a horse, and intended this afternoon 
to propose to William Gordon to be your gallant. 
But Mr. Mason's politeness makes it unnecessary to 
send. You will come directly to my lodgings, which 
are very good. There is no person with me, and 
everything is as it should be. I calleil on Mrs. 
Mason last evening, and she expressed a strong wish 
that you might come with her husband. That was 
very good in her, was it not ? " 

" Charlestown, N. H., May 14, ISOS. I never 
can express, in terms strong enough, how much I am 
delighted with your letter by Mr. Stevens. If you 
will promise to write me such letters, I will go from 
home half the time at least. Let us grow old to- 
gether, and let our path of love, like the path of the 
just, shine more and more to the perfect day.'' 

'' Haverhill, N. H., October 13, 1S03. I cannot 
yet say when we shall adjourn ; but the better opin- 
ion is, that Saturday night will end the turmoil of 
Haverhill court, in which case you will be so good 
as to prepare for me a smile by Wednesday. I am 
very well, and in very good spirits, because very 
busy, and the business does not fatigue me, as was 
the case at the Exeter court." 

The day after these lines wTre written. Judge 
Smith's family was visited by a most alUictivc event, 



LIFR OF JUDfiK SMITH. 241 

wliicli is thus described in a letter of business, dated 
the '51st of October: " I mentioned my return from 
the circuit ten days ago. It was the first painful 
visit to my own home. Our dear little Jeremiah, in 
his seventh year, was drowned on the Idth instant. 
At play with a boy of his own age, he accidentally 
fell from a bridge, and, before any assistance could 
be had, was past recovery. I was at the distance of 
one hundred and twenty miles, but arrived in season 
to attend the funeral. I will not attempt to paint 
his mother's distress ; and his aunt P.'s ' sufferings 
are, I believe, nearly as great. He was her favorite 
from infancy. I hope a similar calamity may never 
befall you or yours." 

To the R,ev. Mr. M'Clary, November 2, 1808. 
'' Reverend and dear sir : According to the request 
expressed in your letter of the 31st ult. I have made 
such a certificate as you desire on the deed, and sin- 
cerely hope it will answer the purpose intended. I 
am sorry to hear of your indisposition, and hope it will 
be of short continuance. Your kind sympathy with 
Mrs. Smith and myself, on the loss of our dear child, 
as an evidence of your friendly regard, is consoling. 
I hope we are entirely submissive to the divine will, 
in this sore breach on our little circle, and only soli- 
citous to improve the afllicting dispensation as we 
ought." 

Judge Smith almost immediately set out again on 
his judicial duties, but with feelings tender and sub- 



1 Two of Mrs. Smith's sisters were in Judge Smith's family ten 
years. 

21 



242 lAVi: OF JUDGE SMITH. 

diicil. lie was not a iiKiii to talk of his oinotions ; 
but those wlio know how to read wiiat is expressed 
by siloiioe, as well as by words, w'ill see how nuich is 
implied in the Tollowinj^ short notes to liis wit'e. 

*' Amherst, November 11, 1808. Judge Win- 
gate has just taken his seat, and brings me no letter 
from you. Captain Dana has not arrived, ami I am 
about to set out lor Feteiborough. Judge Liver- 
more is very good, and agrees to stay till Monday 

morning : so that I ean s[>end two days at V . I 

am sorry to go tinther iVom you witht>ut hearing. 
Never was there a time wiien 1 had so great anxiety 
to hear from you. INlrs. Mason I have just seen, 
and it seems she but just saw you. J^ut I will suj)- 
pose you well, and your sister better, beeause with all 
my heart I desire it." 

" r. S. — Captain Dana has arrived, and brought 
me your letter. I have read it with more interest 
than I ever read anything from you. 1 did not ex- 
pect you would now write, as you woukl have done 
three months ago. I perceive our friend JNbClary 
soothed your feelings. I wish he could visit you 
every day till my return. You are not well ; do, 
my dearest wii'e, take care of your precious health. 
Do not add to my mislbrtunes ; for my sake be well. 
Your mind will gradually recover its tone, and we 
shall — our hearts will, be made better. Cod bless 
you, my dearest wife. So prays your ever alVection- 
ate husband, J. S." 

'* Amherst, November 14, 1808. Monday even- 
ing. My dearest wife : Captain D. is so obliging as 
to call, and oiler to carry a letter. 1 can't omit 



lAlK OF JVDC.F. SMITir. 2^13 

writing, lliouf^li I (jX[)()(:t to lu; witli you 'i'lmrsdny 
evening or Friday noon. Wluit would I not give to 
have you with me this night! Mrs. Spahling is all 
goo(Jness, and you would be charin(;d witii her ; but 
the days are long, and the nights longer, f returned 
this morning from l*(3t('rborough. Th(;y are all well ; 
but I did not enjoy mysc^lf. J never took so litthi 
interest in busin(.'ss or in friends, as at tliis eircuit. 
Judge Farrar is just gonci ; he s[)ent th(jev(;ning with 
me. It is now j)ast nine. lie machj the kindest in- 
(|uiries aft(;r you. (iod bh^ss yr)U, my sw(;et wile'." 

It was a sore; and lasting grief, whieh thus robbed 
l)usiness and friendsliij) of their nceustomed inlc^rest, 
making the; days " long," and the nighls " longer." 
It w;)s the first really severe enlamity th;it .fudge 
Smith had known. His atlef^tioris and his [)rid(i were 
bound u[) in the " dear ehild " that, with his name, 
was su|)[)osed also in his eharaeter to bear no small 
resemblanee to himself. The world e,ould never 
again beeome to him what it was before ; a ehange 
liad [)assed over it; his feelings were ehastened ; and 
if no great and sudden revolution was wrought, his 
character was deefyened ; the day-spring of a brighter 
ho[)e' b(5gan, and yl(;lding, as he did, with entire sub- 
mission to the divine will, his heart was macJe b(^tter, 
and the way f)rcpared for patience, through other and 
heavier trials, to have its perfect work. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

1809—1810. 

GOVERNOR or NEW HAMPSHIRE. 

In the spring of 1S09, Mr. Smith was chosen gov- 
ernor of New Hampshire. His interest in pohtics, 
as has been already observed, had been gradually 
diminishing, and for several years his papers contain 
scarcely a reference to political events. His judicial 
office gave him occupation enough, and of the kind 
he best liked, while it opened to him a field of use- 
fulness and honor that might satisfy his ambition. 
Why then should he consent to be held up as a can- 
didate for any political office, especially for one less 
lucrative, and, in the judgment of every wise man, 
less honorable than the ofHce he already held ? " In 
accepting it," he said, " I have consulted neither my 
interest nor inclination. Tlie last seven years of my 
life have been entirely devoted to the otHce I have 
just vacated. In that office, congenial with my hab- 
its and pursuits, and the duties of which had in some 
measure become familiar by practice, I began to in- 
dulge the hope, if my life should be spared and health 



r.TFE OF jrJDfiE SMITH, 245 

restored, Ifial I migfit realize in some small dejireo, 
the wish always nearest my lieart, of b(;iri^ ijsrd'ul to 
my fellow-citizens. lUii it has always been my be- 
lief, and 1 am rjot sensible that my jiractice fias been 
at variance with it, that, in a government like ours, 
every citizen is at the disposal of Ijis country ; and 
though no wise man will ever aspire to ofFice, yet no 
dutiful citizen will feel himself at liberty to decline 
its labors and its c:ares, at the call of his country. 
Jfe will consider fiis fellow-citizens as the br^st judges 
in what way he can best serve them, and it will be 
Jiis fiighest ambition to merit their approbation by a 
diligent and f?iithful discharge of duty." 

The reason here given is strengthened by the fact, 
that in the whole matter he was entirely passive. I 
cannot learn that he ever consented to be a candidate 
except by not forrnjilly declining. I/e went steadily 
on in the performance of his judicial duties, taking 
no part in the election, and probably as indifferent to 
the resiilt as any man in the state. 

The reason above given, however, does not fully 
meet the case. The great of>ject of Mr. Smith's 
public life had been a better administration of justice. 
To this he had chiefly devoted himsf^lf while in the 
state legislature. As a j'Jdge he had introduced a 
more orderly practice, and prepared tlie way for a 
more strict and exact administration of tfje laws. 
But the laws themselves were exceedingly defective, 
and he considered that it was only by establishing 
the judiciary on a more liberal foundation, and re- 
forming tfie whole body of statute laws, that the juris- 
prudence of the state could be made as perfect as the 
2i* 



246 LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 

lot of humanity would admit. He hoped that Mr. 
Mason might be persuaded to succeed him on the 
bench, in which case the duties of the office would 
be discharged with eminent abihty and impartiahty ; 
while he, in his new capacity, should give his whole 
strength to the improvement of the laws, and thus 
introduce into the executive and legislative, what he 
had already accomphshed with such remarkable suc- 
cess in the judiciary department. Such in substance 
were his views, as explained in confidence to a friend 
who called upon him before the election, in order to 
dissuade him from allowing himself to be a candidate. 
But in each and every respect he found himself dis- 
appointed and deceived. 

He was chosen by so small a majority that what- 
ever he might recommend could have no great weight 
of public opinion to sustain it. He was elected by 
a political party, in violent party times, when both 
those who supported and those who opposed him 
were more intent on the little party expedients of the 
day, than on any extended system of legislation, 
which might look to the permanent advancement of 
justice and the well-being of society. In his speech 
to the legislature, the 14th of June, 1809, the judi- 
ciary was almost the only subject which he particu- 
larly recommended. "I cannot," he says, "forbear 
calling your attention in a particular manner to the 
administration of justice, and recommending this most 
important branch of civil polity to your protecting, 
fostering care. Next to the power of religion, a 
strict, able and impartial administration of justice is 
the best security of morals. It is indispensable to the 



LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 247 

peace, happiness and good order of society. It is in 
vain that the legislative body frame and adopt the 
wisest and the best system of laws, if the interpreta- 
tion of them be entrusted to incompetent or unskilful 
hands. No part of our constitution is more just than 
the declaration that, ' It is essential to the preserva- 
tion of the rights of every individual, his life, liberty, 
property and character, that there be an impartial 
interpretation of the laws, and due administration of 
justice.' But this declaration of rights will be at- 
tended with no practical advantage to our citizens, 
unless the legislature and the supreme executive give 
it life and energy by the due exercise of their respect- 
ive functions. 

" It is not sufficient that these departments abstain 
from encroachments on the judiciary. Adequate 
provision must be made by the legislature for its sup- 
port. Twenty years' attendance on courts of justice 
has taught me something of the importance to the 
community of an able, upright and independent judi- 
ciary, and nearly nine years' experience on the bench 
has given me some knowledge of the perplexities, 
labor and great responsibility incident to the office of 
a judge. In the worst constituted judiciary, able 
and independent judges may happen to be found, 
but such are not to be expected. Judges will gener- 
ally bear an exact proportion to the provision made 
for the office. A long and continual sacrifice of in- 
dividual interest for the general good, ought neither 
to be expected nor desired. The nature of man must 
be changed before institutions built on the presump- 
tive truth of such a principle can succeed. It would 



248 LIFE OF JUDGK SMITH. 

be a reproach to our slate, of uhicli it is altogether 
undeserving, to suppose that it wants either the abil- 
ity to make a suitable eslabhshnient lor tliis all- 
important department of government, or materials for 
judges such as the constitution contemplates. When 
the ollice is made as respectable as it ought to be, 
tjie emoluments adequate to its arduous duties and 
high responsibility, men will always be found who 
will cheerfully devote twenty years of their lives in 
preparation for the oHice, and the residue in the labo- 
rious and faithful discharge of its arduous duties. I 
would not depreciate the value of a spirit of patriot- 
ism which leads to individual sacrifices and suH'erings 
for the public good, but it is umeasonable to expect 
from any man a life of study and ai)plication, the 
sacrifice of mucli of that ease and comfort every man 
finds in the bosom of his family, the total renuncia- 
tion of all other means of acquiring property, without 
the ex})ectation of receiving from the public an ade- 
(|uate reward for these sacrifices and services. AVith 
the legislature, then, it rests to determine what shall 
be the character of our judiciary. The constitution 
recjuires and enjoins that it should be as perfect as 
the lot of humanity will admit. Will our citizens be 
content with one less perfect, because they can have 
it for a less price ? on this subject will they be satis- 
fied to be outdone by our sister states ? It is in vain 
that the executive possess the power of appoint- 
ment. It is but the power of inviting to a seat on 
the bench those whose learning, ability and integrity 
qualify them for the employment. Uut will such 
obey the call if the provision lor the ollice is deenicd 
inadequate ? 



LIFE OF Jlfl>r;F SMlTir. 249 

" To mc it would bo a sourco of ^nc-al ro^ncl to find 
this office, or this departmorit of ^^ov(3riiru(;iit, subject 
to the revolutions of j)olill(!al pnrlies, or ;it all alleeled 
by parly feelings. All parlies are bound to unite in 
a subject involving in it ev(;ry thing d(jar to nil. If 
the time should ever arrive when our courts of juslicc 
shall be sw;iy(Ml by [K)|)ul;jr chunor and [)opul;ir ])re- 
judiees, when oin- judge's sluill know no oilier rule of 
judgment but the humor of IIk; times, it will b(i fjdsely 
said that men are tried for llK.ir liv(-s and fortunes; 
they will live by elianee, and enjoy wluil tlu-y have as 
the wind blows, and with trie same c(;rtainty. As far 
as depends on me, you may rcjst assured, that no con- 
siderations of that nature, will have the smallest in- 
fluence on such a[>pointments I trust you 

will excuse my earnestness on this subject. I feel its 
importance. It lies near my lieart. I urge my senti- 
ments with the greater freedom, because I cannot, I 
shall not, receive the smallest benefit from the best 
judicial establishment, except in common with my fel- 
low-citizens. I can have no other inducement for 
what I recommend, than a full conviction of its utility 
and indispensable necessity to the honor and well- 
beingof the state. I am not conscious of a wisfi more 
sincere than that of seeing the place I now leave on 
the bench, filled by a person every way better (juali- 
fied for his station than I could pretend to be." 

Strange as it may seem, these remarks so true, so 
important, and prepared with so high an object, were 
made, above everything else, the means of bringing 
odium upon the governor. The expression, " twenty 
years' attendance in courts of justice," was tortured 



250 LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 

from its true meaning, and made in the democratic 
papers a liissing and a by-word against him. In a 
series of articles ' written witli much adroitness and 
abihty, and suj)posed to be by an oKl iViend and corres- 
pondent, the changes were rung upon them with a 
disingenuousness wliich nothing but tlie malevolence 
of j)arty rage could }>aHiateor excuse ; while many of 
the federalists, smitten by that curse of all political 
parties, the fear of otVending the j^eople, and looking, 
not to his language, but to the popular mind for the 
interpretation, had neither the wisdom to understand, 
nor the magnanimity to sustain him. Of course, his 
reconnnendation had no inliuence with the legislature, 
and the measures nearest his heart fell to the ground, 
answering no other purpose than to make him un- 
popular with the people. It was a cause, however, 
in which he might rejoice to be counted worthy to suf- 
fer shame, and in reference to it, he might have em- 
ployed the language used by Edmund Burke, on a 
similar occasion.* 

As another instance of misrepresentation, I would 
refer to an act of the legislature, appro}>riating about 
thirty-five hundred dollars for the erection of a build- 
ing connected with the medical school at Hanover. 
Immediately in the opposition papers the cry was 
raised that, by this measure, the governor was en- 



' In the New Hampshire Patriot. 

2 " The cliarges ai^aiiist me are all of one kiuii ; tliat I have pushed the 
principles of general justiee too far ; further than a eanlii>us poliey would 
warrant; further than the opinions of many would go a.\ong; with me. 
In every aceidenl which may happen through life, in i)ain, in sorrow, ia 
depression and distress, 1 will call to miiul this accusation, and be com- 
forted." 



LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. S51 

couraging rcsurrcctionisls, and lliat if lie were con- 
tinued in office, the dead would not be })errnittcd to 
sleep quietly in their graves. In \Hli2, J. S. said in 
a lecture, " we now witness what 1 never expected to 
sec below, legislative bodies providing subjects for ana- 
tomical dissections." 

In his judicial appointments he succeeded as little 
to his inind. As no adecjuate provision had been 
made for it, Mr. Mason could not accept the office 
of chief justice. The lion. Arthur Liverniore, an 
associate justice, was promoted to it, which left still 
a vacant seat upon the bench. JJut the salary was 
such that men of very high ({ualifications would not 
accept it. George Sullivan, Samuel l>ell and Caleb 
Kllis, refused to be nominated. And to increase the 
difliculty, three of the five ' councillors, as they be- 
longed to the democratic party, would permit none 
but a man of their own i)arty to be selected. In a 
conversation at the September session of the council, 
they expressed an opinion in favor of Clifton Clag- 
gett, an amiable, honest man, I believe, but wholly 
unfit for the place, more especially as the other asso- 
ciate justice, who had just been appointed, was a 
man of no legal education. The governor expressed 
a decided opinion against him. At the December 
session, the governor requested that tliey should name 



1 The councillors were Elijah Ilall, Richard Dame, SarrnicI Bell, de- 
mocrats ; Caleb Ellis, Benjamin J. Gilbert, federalists. My statements 
here arc drawn from minutes taken at the tiine by the i,'overnor, and 
compared with the official records of the council, in exairiininff which, I 
was greatly assisted by the obliging attention of Mr. Treadwcll, the 
secretary of state. 



959 i.iVK ov .u nt;r sMirn. 

550ino o\hcY pcMsou. but \\\c\ du\ not (col tluMusolvos 
at lihortv to imrtH^ upon nnv otluM-. No nouunati(>n 
was inailo : but at liio no\t uiootiui; ot" tlio ri>unril in 
I'Vbruarv 1SU>. aftor tlio iZtnornor bad lUMuinatod Mr. 
Vost\ Mr. \\ . U. ^\'ooll\^a^^l an^l Mi. Abu>tl\ . witb- 
out snoooss. \\\c oouiu'il nanioil Mr. IMunuM-. Mr. WcW 
sayini^-. as Mr. Oaino bad I'ornuMly do\n\ tbat luMbiMii^bt 
his abibtii^s ^iHxb but ib>ubli\l as to otbcM' i|uablii'a- 
tions. Tlio ^ovornor oxpirssod no opinion ot bis 
otlior(|uabtications. but d'u\ not oxpioss a bij^b (Opinion 
ot* bis law kuvnx K\li^i\ A uuijoritN ot" ihtM-ouiu'il tluMi 
a^rooil upon Jonatluin Stoidt\ and tbo lAovornoi t'i>n- 
currod in tbi^ appointintMit as tbo bi^st ibat. undi^- 
oxistiuii- I'irruinstanoos, <-ould l>iMuatb\ " it bcMUi:," as 
bo said in a lottt^- to Jmlm^ I.ivoiinoiw " doonunl {l>\ 
tbo oouni^il) inoro important tbat tbo court sbiMibl 
liavo riubt opinions in i^vtMvtliinii olso tban ol' law." 
It is easy to sec \\o\\ c\cccd'\\\txU voxatious tbost^ pro- 
coodiniis must liavo Ihhmi. and bow comj^ltMoly, in 
their rosub, tbov nnist ba\o dasbod to tbi* j^ionmi tbo 
anticipations with wbirb he ciWcvcd upon bis ollico. 
In bttU' tbini^s, ot'tontimos mon^ annoying tban 
graver mattiMs. tbo tiibMvont 0(|nally against bim. (^w 
bis rotmn iVom (\MU'orib at tI>o aiI|oni nnuMit ol" tbo 
loi:islatuit\ a cavab'adiM> tMit out tVt>m I'A(Mim- to tv^^i'ort 
liim bomo. Tbt^' n\c\ bim in tbo midst ot" a violtMit 
rain, and bo on bi^rst^baok and l>ar(^-liinubnb was 
obbm\l to rido bab'a milo or morc\ till bis viMy boots 
woro tilltHl with watiM'. In ibo awkwardnt^ss and con- 
fusion occasion(\l bv bis untried situation, oi\ arrivini^ 
at bis boust^ bo was said to bavo foriiotton to invito 
the company to take any relVosbmonts, antl ibis hy 



Horrif; vv.'iH /fijilifjou'-ly .'ittribulfd lo fun if/.tr of \\\(: t-.x- 
|>f;liH<', wlill'; Ol.li(;rH illtiMHCji l}if;rriK(;l Vf;H [>y liifiif,rr>ijM 
.'.lori«;H of Mr.H. Sfriith'H liorror ;il. H(;*:iitij^ Iter <:i\r]n:\H 
H<n\(:<\ hy Ko rn.'jriy nin<\<\y hoof.H. 'I'fir; o[)f>OHitir>ri 
/icvv v(;;j|>' rs, of" r:r>ijr-:f:, rn.jflf; tlif: rnoHf, of thi.H, Jinri tfir; 
o»fiitl(:«i r-.iviliJy w;jhIi<;1(1 ij(> jih Hurji ;in ifjHt;jfir-,f; r>f jjri.H- 
t,of,r;jlH: fij*;;innr;.SH, MS to f>f; rir>t. witfioiit. itn influ^jnrM; 

UX \.\t(: /|f;Xt r;N;r,lif>n. 

At, til'; f:;irnf;Kf rf;rjN*;,sf. of lVf:siflf;rit. W\n;(:\<><;k, p^O- 
Vf;rfior Srnitfj Ji.t,tf;fir|r;(l tfio cjniimcnr.cfmjil uX I>;jrt.- 

niOUtli r.(,\\(:;j<;, \\t; vv;i'-i Hl't, ;jt. f 4';f>.') HOn. .'ifiOUt, fivo 

fnilf;s <iiHlaiit, [>y Ji. v<;ry jjjr^^': nuriifxir fW ij(;it\U:tfi(;u 
from n;iriovf;r ;inri l.fio rjf;ij_4ihorifij_MownH, firifj '.i.coiii- 
p;iny of f;;iV-'ilry. VVIi'-n li'; firnt. ^[^[j'-.'irfifl in rif.'lit, of 
tlio vill.'i^';, " fiiH fj,[»()ro;icfi w;ih ;ifjrjoiirir:r;(J t^y tfjo 
nn;_M/it/ of t.hf; \)<:\\ .'ind t.fio /irin^^ of r^anrjon. Wlion 
lio li.'MJ r(M(:\i<:(\ \\i(: Hfj(j;irf;, \i<; w.tH ;i//;iifi K;j|ijtr;(J f>y 
ffirf;o li^-;i.vy (Ji.sr;liJir^f;H o/o'irinon. \ty ;j,ri r:lof.^?j,rit <;ofi- 
r:f;rt, of rniJHir-, and r;H[>orjjj||y f>y tfif; joyful r:r>ufitr;- 
narir:f:s of a. fiufrif;roiJH r.ornpany r>f Hj><:r,tat/>rH." Ajk] 
'• tfjiH inanifcHtfxtiori of lovo and rf;H[>';f:t.," arjrJs t.fif; 
rir;WH[>a[K;r from wfilr-fi f liav^; f>orrow(;(i ifir; ar^rount,, 
" wa.H from !/<:u\\<:ini;\i of tJK; fir.sl rcH|K;ctaf;ilit,y, wjt.fi- 
r>iit. iuiy (iistinclion of [)olit.ir:al f>arly." 'J'fir^HO attori- 
tioriH wore ijrj(ir>ijf;tf;(Jly ^^ratifyin^ t.r> IiJh fr;r;lin^8, al- 
tJjoiJ^di, in fjiH Hohcr jijclgmont., fio altaofiod to tliorn as 
lil.tic valiir;, iiH tfiOHr; wlio f)rofoHH to (icHf>iHf; t.fjf;rn rriOHt. 
Wfiat(;vcrHat.iHfaction fiin vinitmay fiavr;gjvf;n in otfif;r 
rjijart.f:rH, it. hcj-uih not. to fiavf; loft, a [>lo-a.Hant. jm[>rf;H- 
nion Ofj \.\i': minfl of i*rf;Hid(;nt. WfH;oloci<.' 



SfcVfTij) IJtlU; iniuU-uiH occijrr»,'fl, wtiich Ui<; governor u»<5<] afi<:rwarfJ>i 

22 



^i>4 t ur iH' .n i>r.v smuh. 

Tho |\ulk'nlar art whii'h piobabh \\ouiuli\l Mr. 
Sinitli most so>iMvly at tho Uiuc. ciwwc Uonx Ins |h>Ui- 
ioi\l tiioiuis. Sooii)^. as l\\c\ [Uou^^lw . lUc tulo of }hv 
pular taNor turnini:- apiiiist hini. aiul siipposm:: that 
John TaNlor (.uhuan >Nould In^ moio \Ac\\ to bt^ 
choson. tho inon who had tho >t^ar bt toiv takoii suoh 
jwiiis to cot him tVom tho boi\oU toi \\\\n[ tlu\v oon- 
sidori\i a mou^ important phu'o. ai^piMnti\l a I'om- 
miltoo to wait upvMi hun. ami a^Mso lum. on aov onnl 
ot" his apjwront nnpopnlaritv. to iloohno btan.*: airain 
a oandulato. Tiio I'oniimtttw who wcnl oi\ this 
un>.rraoious orraiui. woro loocMvod as im^ht boon bt^Mi 
oxpootoii. \\c rophi\i. in snbstanoo. ami witli tMiiotion 
not iinmi\c\i with ani:or. that as ho liail takon no 
part in piittini: himsc^h" lorwarii tor thi^ iMliro ho thon 
\\v\d. so ho shonKl tako no part in withdrdwmg him- 



to toll wry amusiosrly. TWn:> hnpjvne.i «o bo |>ros<nt. (^l boliow it 
vms on this invasion.^ nn K.nirli^h Inily of soiuo noto, \vl\o»n « »lisiin- 
^uishtM Utorary siviuloinan was, as iho j;\»\oruor ihouglu, ovorUmtlin^ 
wiih tl:ittor\ . Whon an opivrlunity ovvnnvii. l»o vot\UMV\t \o sn^ijvsl to 
tho lady, that she must not oonsi^ior that \»\an a lair spoounon t^t 
Amcricau hrxxniing : but sho rx^pUod, with s*>n\o warmth, that " ho was 
tho only woll hivd n\an sho havl tonnd in Aniorica." A lonjr tinio ho- 
forx\ Mr. Smith had boon on tonns ot intimato iVioivlship with a youns; 
huiy, with whom ho ivrrv^siuMuttHi in a ntannor oortamly not orodiiablo 
to i»is sinotTity. nnloss ho vntondod t»' junrry hor. AAor two or thivo 
voars tho Uivly vory ]>roporly bri>ko otl" tho oorrosj^omlouvv. and. i»\ a 
ietlor whioh show^nl how dooply hor loolinji^s had boott wonndod. but 
with tho dignity l>ocominij a won»an nnvlor snoh oi»Yum>taiuos. sont 
baok his lotto»-s, and askovi that hors miijlu bo ivstoivd to hor. Voars 
had now \v\ssod by. simv both tho partios wxmy n>arritMi, whon thoy n\ot 
onoo moix^ at Trosidoni Whoolook's. and it toll to tho ijxnornor's lot to 
wait npon hor to tho dinnor-tablo. As thoy woro ii^Miiir out, sho ob- 
sorvod in a tono of sonio rt'stM\tnuMU. " Ah, Jorry Smith ! I know ytui." 

" And my doar -," h.^ instantly ivplioil. '• I know yon. and 1 

lovo yon too." It is ilitUonlt to say whioh iu.«sl lo avlmiro, l!>o i;:\llantry 
or tho impndonoo ot" tho n^^ly. 



?.fM ir'tui jt. HiH ir'i';!t(\H r<;tjr';d HH W\n(; un \\\<;y 

f;ini(; : f>ilt, UifJ': WJJH \(;i\. Of) f))', frufifj ;i U;(\mH!. 

wljjfvfi 1)0 f)OV';r j/ot. ov^jr, r^f ifi(;X]>r<:<?,i\)l<; rf',\>\ii/fiun(j'. 
to tfx: IjttJr;, HcM-«;\<;rA(:fi. '\rrfM\>tt\\H\\>\<; <\\<\\l"/A. who by 
t.f)':ir HfJJf-.y l(tUfr'ii'<:!(l(:ni WOulfj A\'.\i'>-.<: of jjI) <M\f;(:¥. 

iy\\(\ r/)r)trol public- uiUnrH. iliH Hn\/%<j\\ifjd wrjt,ing« 
arc i(r,irk(j\ \>y >\. fl';grr;<j of h^-. verity rjjid bJU';rfjf;H?< on 
tfi'iH Hrjf^joct, which tfjoy kIjov/ jd YfM)*cA'X U) nothing 
<;l''/;. It. w;jH ?i. HihfKWfK/ rfjfturk of f)JH t.hro«i^4j Jif>;. 
tfi.if ij'; });i(l rcr:civf;fi rnoro injury frorr) })i''< ir\(;u<W 
t});in frorrj hin oriornioH. 

At tfic ch;f-lior) in M;jrf:f). J^IT), Jofm Lanr/Hon 
waH cfioHon j/ovcrfjor of \';w If.'jrnf/shirCj and Mr. 
Hrnitfi whh orx;/; ffior^; tj)rov/n Lack into privat/; hfc. 
l]x(j;\>i in r(M\)f:<'X to f)iH hcalt.fj, wliicfi I *'j:yuu<A but. 
t.f)ink wjjH one of fiin r:f)i';f rcanonn for leaving/ tijf; 
\yi'j\f',\\. Ifio oxj:/orirr)f;nt. [jphJ \>r<>\<A ;jn utter faihjrc. 
In not. ono of the f>rincif)al rno?i>4ijrcH which ho had 
pro[>oHcri to fjirriHcIf f)ad })c H\irj'/-J'j\(,(\ ; hut at every 
Htef) f)e wan vexed, errif>;jrraHH/;rj and r]iHapf>oif)t/;d. 
ffe offr-n r<S(,rr*-A to worrJH uned in tf)e ]>ri)y(A at hiH 
iO'.in'/ur'iXion^ " tf)at fie rni^/fit |/o in and out U;fore 
tf)i>-, peo[>le," ?JH ht/;rally fulfilled. We rnay well 
unf]f;f-.f;j.Mri fiovv. when Horne yf^arH art/;r he wai* Ji/J- 
fire >.ed by a Htranger in tfje word.H, " Ooverr)Or 
Hrnitf). f believe/* he rxjuld very Hinr^;rely reply. 
'• 'J'he Harne that wan Huch for a nfjort tjfn<;. and biit 
a Hf)ort time, thank C/o<i : — not but that J U;lieve 
jn rny conncienr/; the ^^r^jd peof^le of the Ht.;j.te were, 
to .H-'jy tl)e lea-.t, erjually ^djid that the tjrrje wfj>: 
nhort/' 

But however lightly he rrji;^ht Hpeak of it. and 



256 LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 

however cheerfully he might bear it, the experience 
of that year was to him a severe and heavy disap- 
pointment. He was not, I believe, insensible to 
popular favor ; but took, as every good man will, an 
honest satisfaction in seeing his eflbrts appreciated 
and valued. But the sore trial was to find himself 
thwarted and crippled, in respect to those great 
measures by which he had hoped to advance the best 
interests of the state, and by its superior laws and 
judicial institutions, to build up, in the judgment of 
the wise and good, beyond the reach of popular 
favor or reproach, a lofty and enduring reputation. 

But why did he not succeed ? In the first place, 
those were violent party times, and he who did not 
enter with his whole heart into the party contest, 
could not secure the public sympathy so far as to 
carry through any great and important public meas- 
ure. Where, under the discipline of unscrupulous 
leaders, a party, guided by party feeling, keeps itself 
in power for a succession of years, there is estab- 
lished a despotism, which curses the very soil on 
which it treads. Social affections, public and pri- 
vate honor, the rights of individual judgment, when 
at variance with the rules of a few party leaders, 
are sacrificed without mercy. They who have the 
courage to stand by their own opinions, are pro- 
scribed and driven out from offices of trust and 
honor, and many of the best and ablest men are, in 
fact, disfranchised and disowned. The political his- 
tory of New Hampshire, for the last five-and-thirty 
years, might be adduced, to illustrate and confirm 
these general remarks. If the future historian should 



LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 257 

condescend to notice those who have there held the 
highest offices, he will meet with honorable excep- 
tions ; but too often, while seeking to hold up en- 
couraging examples of political distinction, he will be 
obliged to make out the sad record of moral degra- 
dation. But there is a law of retribution, which 
makes no distinction between public and private 
conduct, and which, in its own good time, obliges 
all to reap even as they sow. When the leading 
federalists, forsaking the great principles of public 
policy on which they professed to act, began to show 
their conservatism by deranging permanent institu- 
tions, in order to remove temporary evils, the party 
fell through, as untrue to itself. And so with the 
other party, when, instead of looking to the good of 
all, it converts itself into a mighty engine for the 
exaltation of its leaders, it may for a long time seem 
to prosper ; but sooner or later they who have tri- 
umphed most, will be forced to taste the bitter and 
poisonous fruit of the tree which their own hands 
have planted, in the vain hope that it would prove 
fatal only to tlieir opponents. 

But in addition to all this there was, in the posi- 
tion which Mr. Smith had previously occupied, and 
in his character, much that disqualified liim for 
being a popular politician. He who for so many 
years had filled the highest place on the bench, till 
his form had become associated in the minds of the 
people with the venerable majesty of the law, could 
not, without losing something of their respect and 
his own, come down to manage the thousand springs 
which act upon the public mind. It may be ques- 
22* 



258 LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 

tioned whether any one, who has been long and 
eminently distinguished as a clergyman or judge, can, 
as an active politician, continue to enjoy the public 
confidence. For, in proportion to the purity of mind, 
the loftiness of purpose, the sanctity of life, which 
men have been accustomed to attribute to him, will 
be the revulsion of feeling, when they see him de- 
scend from his high place, to mingle, like others, in 
the vulgar fray. And he whose sole business it has 
been for years to discover what is just, and to de- 
clare it with an authority from which there is no 
appeal, cannot volunteer to come down into the 
arena of political strife, and stand there as a candi- 
date for popular favor, without losing in his own 
mind something of the sense of personal dignity and 
self-respect. At the same time, the habits of his life, 
just in proportion as they have lifted him above the 
passions of the world, in the discharge of his sacred 
duties, have destroyed in him that quick sympathy 
with the popular feeling, by which he may adapt 
himself to circumstances, and prepare his measures 
and the public mind for each other. Here Governor 
Smith was extremely deficient. As a statesman, he 
could see clearly, and prepare with remarkable wis- 
dom, the measures best fitted for the public good ; 
but as a politician, he had not the art of managing 
men, and so of securing the adoption of his meas- 
ures. This he has himself expressed, with equal 
sincerity and truth. " I have been," he says, in the 
record of his private thoughts, February, 18^5, " too 
regardless of private fame, too heedless of personal 
advantages ; have taken too little, indeed no pains, 



LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 259 

to secure to myself, by legitimate and honorable 
means, a popular sanction of my conduct. I have 
always had a general wish for public and private ap- 
probation ; but have always been too much, too en- 
tirely occupied, in the particular actions in hand, to 
regard their bearing on popular opinion. The first 
intimation I have generally had that the manner was 
wrong, (for the actions were generally, and the in- 
tentions always good,) has been the advantage taken 
by persons desirous of disparaging me ih the public 
estimation.'^ 

In another place he has said : " It is not new to 
me to be blamed by two opposing parties. As a 
party man, it is an insuperable objection to me that I 
can as easily discern the faults on my own side as on 
the other. Now your true party man sees no faults 
but on one side, and there all is in fault." 

" A party must do the very thing we condemn, 
prefer their friends to the public good. They cannot 
retain power, or be stable, without gratitude to their 
friends. The chain of friendship must be bright — 
the difficulty is in retaining those for whom they can 
do nothing. They must be liberal of promises, and it 
is well if they for whom nothing is done be simple. 
The knowing ones must be provided for, and the less 
pure the conduct, the greater the clamor set up about 
their own purity, accompanied with vehement accu- 
sations against their adversaries. They are sure of 
belief in both ; a jury will not require much evi- 
dence, where they have an interest in the verdict." 

To obtain popularity, or serve the people by such 
means, was altogether beyond Governor Smith's skill. 



CHAPTER IX. 

1810— 1800. 

MR. SMITH AT THE BAR JlTDiCIARY ACT OF IS13 

CHIKF JISTU K .riTDICTARY ACT OF ISIG MR. 

SMITH AGAIN AT THK RAR. 

On ceasing to be governor, Mr. Smith retnrneii to 
the practice of his profession. He did not lose the 
cheerfuhiess tlint was so remarkable a trait in liis 
character, nor had he ever the embittered feelings of 
an ill-used or disappointed man. A gentleman,' who 
afterwards reached the highest place at the New 
Hampshire bar, and who was with Mr. Smith as a 
student in 1810, gives the same account as all others 
who at any time were in his family, of his obliging 
attentions to the young, and his uniform elasticity 
of spirits. Yet I doubt whether he engaged in busi- 
ness or politics with as nuich interest and zest as 
before he went upon the bench. This I infer from 
single expressions in his letters to Mrs. Smith. — 

1 Josoph Roll, Esq.. now of the IMassacIiusclts legislature. 



LIFE OF Ji;i)OK SMITJf. 261 

'' Koono, 24t.fi October, 1 810. T wish I lovfjd 
rriorif;}', for tlifjn it. wouM privo uk- f)I(;?jsur<; to oarn 
it, ; \)\i\. [ (Jo not, jirid uothint^ hiit. a .sf;riso of" duty 
iriakf;s rnf; labor in my profession." " Arnfiorst, 
]-^tli Oct,ol>(;r, 1811. f finvo not stood in nf;Ofl of 
nursin;.^, hut fiavo noofJod a L^roat deal of sootfiing, 
wfiif.h riohody f>tit yon could give. Mrs. S. is vory 
woli and vory kind, hut I vvisfi witfi ?dl my hoart that 
you were here." " Boston, 24th jMareh, 1HI2. I 
have lost my taste for polities, if I ever had any, 
and here J hear nothin;.^ (;ise. Gorl ^aant tliat f may 
he delivered from this body of politicians, and re- 
turn to my rest." But nowhere in his letters, writ- 
ten with the unrestrained freedom of fjerfeet confi- 
dence, is there an expression that would indicate 
disap[)ointment, or a mind dissatisfied with his po- 
sition. 

His professional income more than equalled his 
expectations, and liis faculties must have been tasked 
to the utmost ; for in the same county with himself 
were Jeremiah Mason, Daniel Webster, and George 
Sullivan. These men were then in tfie full vigor of 
manfiood, and in the contests at the bar must have 
furnisfied an extraordinary exhibition of forensic 
j)Ower. Mr. Sullivan, the son of Gen. John Sul- 
livan, and for many years attorney-general of New 
Hampshire, was a man of fine address, quick parts, 
and flowing eloquence. It was a pleasure to listen 
to the rich tones of his voice, as the sentences came 
rolling out with their full, regular and sonorous ca- 
dences. Biit he was as much inferior to Smith and 
Mason in legal strength and knowledge, as he was 



262 LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 

their superior in the power to move the feelings of 
a jury. The names of Mr. Smith and Mr. Mason 
are, by those who remember tliose times, most fre- 
quently mentioned together. They were poweiful 
combatants, less unequal than unlike. Both were 
profoundly learned, but Smith the more accomplished 
scholai; ; both were profound thinkers, but Mason's 
the more original mind. With perhaps equal in- 
dustry in tlie preparation of causes, the one fortified 
his position with accumulated authorities, the other 
trusted more to his native strength and the force of 
reason. The one was copious in illustrations, open- 
ing his views as in the broad sunlight, and explain- 
ing them till none could fail to understand ; the other 
laid himself out in a few bold strokes, and with a 
condensed energy of expression that seldom em- 
ployed a superfluous word. The one was a more 
lucid expositor ; the other a stronger reasoner, and 
possessing more masterly powers of analysis. In 
cross-examining witnesses, Mr. Mason, whose skill in 
this respect was perhaps unequalled in this country, 
laid his plans far back, getting all that he wished 
before his design was suspected ; while Mr. Smith, 
with piercing eye, watched his opportunity and darted 
with sudden surprise on the unhappy man who was 
laboring to conceal the truth. Yet either could ap- 
ply the other's method. Severity with the one smote 
down its victim by a single blow ; with the other it 
was oftener a cutting irony, from its exceeding sharp- 
ness hardly felt till the mischief was done. Wit, in 
the one, had the pungency that only awakes a smile ; 
in the other, it was the ludicrous association or the 



LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. S63 

joyous humor, that convulses men witfi laughter. 
But here too, either could use the other's weapons. 
In pathos, they were perhaps equally deficient ; and 
equally remarkable for the contemptuous indignation 
which they could excite against whatever was mean 
or dishonest. As an advocate, each was ready to 
take all the advantage of his adversary that profes- 
sional adroitness and the rules of the bar would al- 
low ; but they were both men of personal honor, 
and of a proud, unbending integrity ; and as either 
spoke of those high virtues, he seemed a fitting cham- 
pion and representative of his cause. Neitlier of 
them laid claim to the charm or graces of oratory. 
When they met at the bar, it was the stern encoun- 
ter of massive intellectual strength, in which they 
dealt their heaviest and sharpest blows. In legal ac- 
quirements and logical skill, they were the not un- 
worthy associates and antagonists of Daniel Webster ; ' 

1 The first time that Mr. Mason and Mr. Webster ever met, was in a 
criminal trial. Col. , a man somewhat prominent in the demo- 
cratic party, had been indicted for counterfeiting. It was a desperate 
case, since he had been detected, not merely once or twice, but many 
times, in passing counterfeit money. He was so connected with his party, 
that it was thought very important, on political grounds, to secure his ac- 
quittal. A subscription was accordingly raised to defray the expenses, 
and Mr. Mason was employed to defend him. It so happened, that just 
before the trial came on, the attorney-general — not Mr. Sullivan — who 
was subject to fits of intemperance, was obliged to go home, and Mr. 
Webster, who lived in the ncigliljorhood, and knew all about the case, 
was applied to by the solicitor to act in behalf of the state. Mr. Mason 
had heard of him as a young man of remarkable promise, but he " had 
heard such things of young men before," and prepared himself, as he 
would have done, to meet the attorney-general. But he soon ff)und that 
he had quite a different person to deal with. The young man "came 
down upon him like a thunder-shower ; " and Mr. Mason's client got off, 
as he thought, more on account of the political feelings of the jury, than 
from the arguments of the counsel. 



S64 LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 

while in that combination of gifts which makes the 
commanding orator, lie stood with them, as he has 
done every where else, like Mount Washington among 
the other mountains of New England. Mr. Smith 
has often said, that in single qualities he had known 
men superior to Mr. Webster ; that Hamilton had 
more original genius ; Ames, greater quickness of 
imagination ; that Marshall, Parsons, and Dexter were 
as remarkable for logical strength ; but that, in the 
union of high intellectual qualities, he had known no 
man whom he thought his equal. 

While the New Hampshire bar was at that time 
distinguished for its ability, the bench did not enjoy 
in an equal degree the public confidence. The chief 
justice, a man of strong, uncertain powers, in whom 
was vested whatever of respect the court was entitled 
to, was the only one among the judges of the supe- 
rior court, who had not evidently been appointed 
from party considerations alone. Richard Evans, 
who had been placed upon the bench by Gov. Lang- 
don a few days before he was succeeded by Gov. 
Smith, had a sort of metaphysical talent, but no ac- 

Mr. Mason was particularly struck with the high, open, and manly 
ground taken by Mr. Webster, who, instead of availing himself of any 
technical advantage, or pushing the prisoner hard, confined himself to 
the main points of law and fact. Mr. Mason did not know how much 
allowance ought to be made for his being taken so by surprise; hut it 
seemed to him that he had never since known Mr. Webster to show 
greater legal ability in an argument. 

In drawing any comparison between Mr. Smith and Mr. Mason as 
advocates, it should be borne in mind that, while the latter was actively 
engaged at the bar more than forty years, the former, after spending 
seven years in congress, gave the strength and enthusiasm of his man- 
hood to the duties of the bench, for which, more than for the bar, his 
taste, abilities and attainments had peculiarly fitted him. 



LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 265 

quaintance with the law ; and Clifton Claggett, whom 
Gov. Smith had repeatedly refused to nominate for 
the bench, but who had received the appointment 
from one of his democratic successors, belonged to 
the profession, but was too weak a judge to be looked 
up to by the bar with respect. 

In June, 1813, the federalists being then in power, 
an act of the legislature was passed, by which the 
old courts were abolished, and every superior and in- 
ferior judge in the state was thrown out of office. 
There were confessedly, in the old system, serious 
imperfections, which were remedied by the new, es- 
pecially in allowing jury trials to be conducted by a 
single judge, and in making provision for a law term, 
but the main object in making the change undoubt- 
edly was to get rid of incompetent judges. It was 
a bold stroke, not, in all its extent, sanctioned by the 
leading men at the bar, and directly at variance with 
what, throughout the United States, had been the 
avowed principles of the conservative party. There 
was nothing on which they had professed to depend 
so much for the stability of our government, as a judi- 
ciary which should be, as far as practicable, indepen- 
dent of popular or legislative interference ; and here, 
by a single act of theirs, every judge in the state had 
been displaced. If the object were to reform the 
court, why not change it without removing the judges ? 
If to remove the judges, why not remove them in the 
way the constitution had provided, by address from 
the legislative to the executive department ? Or 
if both purposes were to be answered, why not let 
each be done in the way which the constitution had 
23 



266 LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 

pointed out ? In a government like ours, there is 
nothing from which we have more to apprehend than 
the disposition on the part of the people to break 
through established safeguards, in order to get rid of 
some pressing but temporary evil. In their impa- 
tience under a present infliction, they forget the flood 
of disorders that may be let in through a single breach 
of the constitution. It is, therefore, particularly in- 
cumbent on the leading men in the conservative 
party to bear long with evils, which must in time die 
out of themselves, before they consent to do that 
which may so much as seem to sanction such a course. 
In this particular case, however, it must be remem- 
bered that as far as precedent could go to establish a 
construction of the constitution, congress, in abolish- 
ing the United States' circuit court, and the legisla- 
ture of Massachusetts, in abolishing their court of 
common pleas, had given ample authority for this act, 
and that whatever might have been the course most 
consistent with the principles of the federalists, their 
opponents had no reason to complain of what had 
been done ; since it was but following an example 
which they, under similar circumstances, had most 
heartily approved. 

The judiciary act of 1813, was a thoroughly radi- 
cal measure, adopted by a party, who appear to have 
been surprised at finding themselves again in power, 
and who, by this act, began to open the way for their 
final and decisive overthrow. The ablest lawyers, 
who had seen the defects of the old system, and la- 
bored for some change as absolutely necessary, were 
hardly prepared for such a change. The democratic 



LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 267 

party, who viewed the act as utterly unconstitutional, 
threatened a civil revolution in the state. On all 
sides, it was considered impossible for the new court 
to get under weigh, unless Mr. Smith would consent 
to be the chief justice. To him it was a source of 
extreme perplexity and vexation. He heartily disap- 
proved of what had been done, and yet by consenting 
to be placed at the head of the new judiciary, he 
must expect to encounter all the difficulties, and to 
bear all the odium connected with it. In a pecuniary- 
point of view it was a great sacrifice, since his income 
at the bar was more than three times what it would 
be upon the bench,' and his circumstances at that 
time were such as to make this a matter of considerable 
consequence to him. Governor Oilman was exceed- 
ingly anxious that he should accept the office, but could 
get at first no definite answer. Mr. Mason, then a 
senator in congress, in a letter to Mr. Smith, dated 
Washington, July 6, 1813, says: "My only fear is 
respecting your acceptance. I am confident the suc- 
cess of the system will depend on you. Should you 
decline, I cannot see how it will get into operation. 
.... I hope you will find no objection to accept- 
ing the office with the intention of retaining it per- 
manently. At all events, you must in my opinion 
accept and hold it for a time, or prepare to see disap- 
pointment and confusion ensue I will only 

add that Mr. Webster and others here, entirely agree 
with me in the wishes I have expressed on this sub- 

» By the act of 1813, the salary of the chief justice was fifteen hua- 
dred dollars, that of the associate judges, twelve hundred. 



268 LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 

ject." In another letter, Mr. Mason says : " When 
about a fortnight ago I sent you my advice respecting 
your duty in a very important particular, I intended 
soon to have written again. I had not vanity enough 
to suppose I should have much influence with you, 
but I thought the course you adopted so important 
to the community, that I could not refrain from ex- 
pressing my wishes. I see, by the public papers, you 
have been appointed chief justice ; I hope I shall 
soon see that you have accepted. Nothing else will 
put down the clamor raised against the system. 
Should you decline I think I see danger of confusion. 
I say this with the utmost sincerity. I have seen all 
the newspapers, and been informed of the feelings of 
the democratic party." 

In his reply to these letters, dated July 26, Mr. 
■Smith says : " I would hardly believe that anything 
eould have given me so much perplexity as this . . . 
....... (you may fill this up with any epithets 

you choose) new judiciary act has done. Before I 
received your letter I had come to the same conclu- 
sion you seem to have done. 

" I need not state to you the pros and cons ; you 
will easily conceive of them all, and it would be a 
very long letter as well as a very dull one to state 
them. It is only one year, and if it please heaven, I 
may still have time enough to acquire the little that I 
need. 

*' I verily believe our path is beset with difliculties 
— our members in the legislature were chock full of 
courage when they were at Concord, stufling them- 
selves with brandy, and each other with big swelling 



LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 269 

words of their own importance. But when they got 
home and came to be sober, the scene was sadly- 
changed ; they were most piteously frightened, and 
others, including — et id genus omne, ingenuously 
taking advantage of the panic, have seized those pure 
vehicles, the Gazette and Patriot, and continue pour- 
ing out on the public, essay upon essay, paragraph 
upon paragraph, alternately coaxing and bullying. I 
sincerely believe if they (the general court,) could 
get back the act, they would see the devil have it 
before they ever passed another such. Judge Liver- 
more is here and accepts. I have just received a 
letter from Ellis, in which he proposes to embark on 
the stormy sea, if I will." 

The following letter to his old friend, Timothy 
Farrar, explains his feelings more fully : 

^'Exeter, 26th July, 1813. Dear Sir: I could not 
but be flattered by your letter of the 19th. There 
certainly is no man, whose opinions would weigh 
more with me, or whose wishes I should have more 
pleasure in gratifying, than yours. Before 1 received 
your letter, I had however determined on the course 
I ought to take. I hope it will meet your approba- 
tion. For the greater and better portion of my life I 
have pursued that course which the public were 
pleased to direct, and it has always been to me more 
troublesome and less profitable than the one I had 
chosen for myself. When this same public were 
pleased, three years ago, to say that they had no far- 
ther ocqasion for my services, I concluded that I 
might safely calculate on the little of life that re- 
mained, as my own. At my age and with slender 
23* 



^270 LIFE OF JUDGF. S>nTH. 

}icalth, it would have been {^resuniptuous to have 
counted on riches or length of days. My success has 
more than answered my expectations, and I have 
never entertained the tliought of cjiiitting the shade 
which Providence seemed to liave provided for me. 
I found it necessary to pursue Hie business of my 
profession a httle longer, and it has not been irksome 
to me. The responsibility attached to the otiice of 
judge, and especially of chief justice, pressed heavily 
on me when I had more strength and nuich greater 
zeal than I have now. No man was ever more 
sincere in his endeavors to fultil the duties o( an 
appointment, than 1 was. 

'' You can form a correct opinion of the ditliculties 
with which a judge has to contend. In looking back, 
I see abundant matter for mortification ; but these re- 
trospections give me na pain, because I always in- 
tended well., and never spared any labor. I hope it 
will not be thought vain to say, that when the public 
and I fell out, I did not consider myself as owing 
them anything. They had no claims on me, and I 
was as desirous as they could be that our separation 
should last forever. As to the past, I was disposed 
with all my heart to oflset any little slights or ill- 
usa^e on their })art, against the many errors (none of 
them intentional) and imperfections they must have 
discovered in me. But nothing was farther from my 
thoughts than to open a new account. Under these 
circumstances (and it would be taxing you too se- 
verely to state all my objections to a renewal of 
public life,) you can form some idea of the perplex- 
ity which this new judiciary act has occasioned nie. 



lAFi: OK jr;i)f;i: SMiTif. '21 \ 

A very }jo1(1 sf<;[> }i;js \)(ja\ t;ikf;ri- in which f h:id no 
?i|rorK-y, ;irjr] ns to vvhifJi 1 vv;is rjot. ovon consultcfJ. 
It. is a stop, loo, wljioh I should not ijavo advised^ 
t,hou;^h two things hnvo boon gainod hy it of groat 
€onsofjijorioo, tiio tri;i.l of" jury oausos hoforo a single 
judiro of tho siipromo court, arjd tfjo chance of ob- 
tainirig better men than the old system was calcu- 
lated generally to give for the common pleas bench. 
I5ut the step iias been taken, and if it does not suc- 
ceed well, it will do an infinite deal of mischief. 

" I Ijave been given to understand, from several 
(juarters, tfiat many people are pleased to suppose 
that my s^irvices at this time are needed, and that, if 
they are withliohjen, it will weaken a cause to which, 
from sincere corjviction, I have always given my 
feeble support, and add strength to a cause already 
too strong. If tfjis experiment sfjould not succeed, 
it will destroy all liopes of any im[>rovement in our 
judicial system in our day. Except so far as regards 
mys(;lf, tfiere is doubtless weight in tliese observa- 
tions. At the same time it is equally true that J 
cannot hold the ofHce of chief justice witfi the salary 
annexed to it. I have made such arrangements on 
the score of expense, A.c, as forfjids it. I never will 
consent to \xi dependent as a public or private man. 
I>esides, ever since tfie people of Massacfiusetts have 
done their duty on this subject, 1 liave persuaded 
myself that the lienor of tlie state, their interest, the 
nature of the office, its duties, to say nothing about 
its dignity, require a much higher salary, one which 
shall at all times command the services of those best 
qualified. I have persuaded myself, also, that it 



272 LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 

may do some good to the state, and have some ten- 
dency perhaps in the end to procure better salaries 
for others, if I avow these sentiments and act upon 
them. It is not necessary for the state, and as little 
for me, that I should be a judge, but it is my sincere 
desire that the otTice should be raised ; because I am 
persuaded that the character of our judiciary will 
rise with it. I am willing to be thought avaricious, 
(which I am not,) and to be evilly spoken of, if it 
will conduce to this end. I know this is not the road 
to popularity, and I do not like it the worse on that 
account. 

" Taking everything into consideration, I have 
concluded for the present to accept the ofiice and 
hold it for a year. It is every way a sacrifice. The 
pecuniary one I regard the least. If it please Heaven, 
I shall have, after that, time enough to acquire in my 
profession the small sum I need. Next year the le- 
gislature will have an opportunity of knowing and 
expressing the j)ublic sentiment on the subject, and 
every one will be convinced that my continuance is 
of no consequence. In taking this step, it did not 
escape me that standing aloof at this critical moment 
would expose me, among a certain class of men, to 
the suspicion of acting under the influence of resent- 
ment for supposed ill treatment. I would make a 
sacrifice at any time rather than incur such suspi- 
cions, though conscious I did not deserve them. But 
the truth is, I feel nothing of all this. I will engage 
at any time to forget ill treatment as soon as its 
authors forget it, and to forgive it much sooner. 

*' I have said a great deal more than I intended, 



LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 273 

but the subject interests ine, and there arc few 
people to whom one can speak unreservedly ; so that 
you may think yourself well ofT that I have said no 
more." 

Influenced by these considerations, Mr. Smith ac- 
cepted the office, with Artliur Liverrnore (the late 
chief justice,) and Caleb Ellis for associates. There 
can be no doubt that he had a perfect right to ac- 
cept the office ; since whatever may be thought of 
the act by which the old superior court was abol- 
ished, tlie legislature was unquestionably authorized 
by the constitution to establish such new courts as it 
might see fit. But Messrs. J'lvans and Claggett, of 
the old court, regarding as unconstitutional the act 
by which their offices had been taken from them, de- 
termined still to go on in the performance of their 
judicial duties, as if no such act had been passed. 
The democratic papers threatened to maintain by 
violence, if necessary, the authority of the old judi- 
ciary, and private letters were received by Judge 
Smith, urging him, if he would avoid a civil war, 
to decline accepting the office. These threats, of 
course^ had no influence upon him. He felt the 
delicacy of his situation, and, foreseeing, prepared 
himself to meet the difficulties and embarrassments 
that were to be thrown in his way. The first term 
of the court was to be holden at Dover, in Strafford 
county, and it was thought best that it should be 
opened by Judge Liverrnore, as he had been chief 
justice in the old superior court, and seemed to be 
entirely satisfied with the present arrangement. On 
Tuesday morning, September 7, he reached Dover, 



274 LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 

at about nine o'clock, and finding his old associates, 
Messrs. Evans and Claggett there, with the deter- 
mination of holding their court at the same time and 
place appointed for his, he compromised the matter, 
by agreeing that they should have the court-house in 
the forenoon, and he in the afternoon. This com- 
promise seemed unnecessary, as the sheriff, clerk, 
and other officers were on his side, so that when 
Messrs. Evans and Claggett met, they had no grand 
jury, and no means of carrying on the business of 
the court. They, however, appointed a clerk, and 
Mr. Evans delivered a long address, condemning the 
late act of the legislature, and then adjourned till ten 
o'clock the next morning. In the afternoon Judge 
Livermore held his court, and, after the usual charge 
to the grand jury, observing that he had a communi- 
cation to make to the people, he, to the astonishment 
of all present, made a strong and vehement address 
against the act under which he held his office, con- 
demning it as unconstitutional, and arraigning the 
motives of the legislature that passed it, in terms 
exceedingly harsh and severe. He then adjourned 
the court till nine the next morning. In the morning 
he agreed with Evans and Claggett that they should 
take his hour and place, and he went to the meeting- 
house, where he continued from day to day, till they 
had finally adjourned. During the second week, the 
chief justice was present, and went on with the busi- 
ness of the court unmolested. 

The next session of the supreme judicial court, 
which was at Exeter, the third Tuesday in Septem- 
ber, was holden by the chief justice and Judge Ellis. 



LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 275 

Soon after they had taken their seats upon the 
bench, Messrs. Evans and Claggett entered the court- 
house, and seated themselves, one on the right, the 
other on the left, of the judges. The court was or- 
ganized, as usual, by the chief justice, although his 
directions were all countermanded, and the sheriff 
refused to obey any but the late judges. For in- 
stance, after the clerk of the court had, at the request 
of the chief justice, administered the oath of office 
to the jurors, Mr. Evans ordered his clerk to repeat 
the ceremony, stating that the oath just administered 
was unauthorized and illegal. The chief justice ex- 
pressed an opinion that this course could not be tol- 
erated, and the jurors all refused to be sworn a 
second time. When the chief justice rose to charge 
the grand jury, he was interrupted by Mr. Evans, 
who said, " Gentlemen, the act recognizing the court 
that is now about to address you, is unconstitutional. 
We acknowledge that these men (Smith and Ellis) 
are judges by appointment, but not judges of the 
superior court. They may have an inferior jurisdic- 
tion ; with this court they have nothing to do." The 
chief justice then delivered his charge, after which 
juries were organized, and the court proceeded to 
business, the defunct judges keeping their seats in 
silence. Judge Smith preserved throughout his usual 
suavity of manners, yielding to the caprices of Evans 
and Claggett, and permitting them to go through with 
any " ceremony," as he termed it, " that they deemed 
it incumbent on them to perform." 

In the afternoon the judges, finding the court- 
room occupied, went into another part of the house, 



276 JAW. OF .TunnK SIVriTlT. 

and proceeded with the business before them, as if no 
interrnplion had taken i)lae(\ 

In Hillsborough eounly the sainc^ fare(^ was enaeted, 
and with very much lh(^ same resuhs. Had Messrs. 
Evans and Clai;L!,(Mt been al)K* men, su|)|)ortcd, as they 
were, by a powerlul political parly, thi^ most serious 
consequences mii^ht have ensued ; but, as it was, 
their feeble and foolish elVorts served oidy to briiiij; 
them into contemj)t. 'i'lu^y lost the httle hold they 
had previously had upon popular sympathy, and their 
appeals to the public tlid far more to jirove their 
own incompetency, than the unconstitutionality of 
the act by which they had been superseded.' Great 
credit was due to Mr. Adams, the clerk, for his lirm 
and judicious conduct, without which the embarrass- 
ments would have been almost insuperable. The 
forbearance, too, of tlu^ court, supported as it was by 
their distinguished and acknowled^xul ability, made a 
most favorable impression upon the jniblic mind. 
*' It was the :jim of the chic^f justice and Jud^e 
Ellis," said Judi;(* Smith, in his account of the })ro- 



* At Dovor, an lioiu'st I-uiium', Inviiiii: hoard INIr. C^lai,'-;t'll in a wriltoii 
speocli of si'vcral lioius, laliorin^ to prove tlu" acl ol' llic lri,M.sl;Uiiro, 
wliich (Icprivod the slato of his services as a jndgo, ii L;ross and lla>.::rnnl 
viohilion i)f the constitution, ol)sorvod, when \\v i-aino out, that thoui^h 
Iho t;ood nnm hud ihilod to oonviiico Iiiin that tho ro|)rosontativ('s of the 
people had broken the constitution, he hati satisfied him that he (the ex- 
jndij^c) was never (jualilied for the office, and that whoever huil np- 
poinled hini, must have been as weak as himself, or very wicked. The 
following trillinij: anec(U)te from tin- newspapers of that day, as well ns 
the above, may, like a mote in the air, show how the public sentiujont 
was then turninu;. A good woman, on being told how Kvans and Clai(- 
gett persisted in holding their court, said, they sccnied " very much 
like her old hen tuikey ; the eggs had all been taken away — still the 
old fool would keep silting, and sitting, and silting." 



LII'K OF JVDC.K SMITir. 277 

CCC(lin</.s at KmAcs, " lo rorKliicl. vvilli IIm; iilriiost, 
mildness, and lo Ixjir with any nets of ru(l(Mi(,'.s.s, niid 
ovoM insult, of]'«;r(;(l to tlioir [xirsons, as far as tlioy 
(|(;(,'nK!(l (^onsisl(;nt willi the honor of tlio ("ourt and 
tho administration of justice. 'J'li<;y wore; wilhrif^^ to 
inipnto many thin,u:s to ii^noraiK'O and misl.Mko." 

Af"l(;r thoso inolli^etual attoiripls to ohstrnet its pro- 
C(;o(hn:j^s, the now (-ourt was aHowod to jj^o on with- 
out {'arther mol(!stalion. A s|)<;cial session of th(; 
legislature; was ealled hy (lovernor (iihnan, !it which 
the sli(;rills, who had r(;rused to ohey the orders of 
the supreme judicial court, were removed from olliee, 
but it was not tfiou^ht cx[)C(lient lo pass any act with 
resf)ect to Messrs. ICvaris and Cla^^^^ett. The old court 
was left to die of inaniti(jn. 

Judge Smith had accepted his odice with ihe un- 
derstanding that he should he permitted to give it uf) 
as soon as tfie new judiciary system had got fairly 
cstahlisliecJ, and in tfie summer of 1814 he was ex- 
ceedingly desirous of handing in his r(;signation. 
]5ut those in whose judgirKMit Ik; j^laced the greatest 
confidence, were altogeth(;r averse; to his taking such 
a stej). Judge I'^liis, his intimate friend, whose clear 
intellect was united to a character as spotl(;ss as falls 
often to th(; lot of man, remonstrated against it, 
holh on account of his ()rivate wisli(;s and his re- 
gard for the public good. Mr. Sullivan, Mr. Mason, 
Mr. Wel)st(;r, and indeed, almost wilhout (jxception, 
th(; whoh; har W(;r(; of tin; same opinion. Mr. Ma- 
son, in a letter dated .July 10, IHM, said: " I am 
sensible your situation the j>ast y(;ar has h(;(;n un- 
pleasant and ve^itious, :ui(l that the f:on(lu(*t of the 
24 



278 LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 

legislature has been very provoking. I am, however, 
of opinion, in which Mr. Webster concurs, that you 
cannot, consistently with your duty to the public, 
resign your seat. Your resignation would imme- 
diately throw the judiciary into utter confusion. By 
another instance of folly in our federal legislature, 
the council is so composed that no successor could 
be appointed. The council would agree to nobody 
the governor would agree to. The ghosts of Judges 
Evans and Claggett would again rise, and re-act the 
mad pranks of the last year. It is impossible to say 
what would be the event. The scene would be 
filled with nothing but disgrace, in which we should 
all share. If you will permit yourself fairly to con- 
sider the consequences, I think you cannot come to 
the determination of resigning. I never made loud 
claims to any extraordinary share of patriotism. But 
since you request me to consider what I would do in 
your situation, I do not hesitate to say that, if in 
your situation, and possessing your talents for dis- 
charging the duties of the situation, I would not, 
under existing circumstances, resign, the present 
year. I think you cannot do it without endangering 
your own character. Should you, contrary to my 
wishes and expectations, determine on a resignation, 
I sincerely fear that you, together with all good men 
in the state, would soon have ample cause of re- 
pentance." 

These considerations were not to be resisted, and 
although an attempt in the legislature to increase his 
compensation had been unsuccessful, and he could 
continue in office only at great personal sacrifice, his 



LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 279 

duty was too plain to be mistaken, and he remained 
in his pla^e. His course was distinguished by the 
quahties which had before marked his judicial con- 
duct, and notwithstanding the circumstances under 
which he had been appointed, he enjoyed the same 
confidence as before on the part both of the public 
and the bar. 

In the spring of 1816, Judge Smith met with a 
severe loss in the death of his intimate friend and 
associate, Judge Ellis. There was no public man to 
whom he was more sincerely attached, or whom he 
remembered as long ^ as he lived, with warmer affec- 
tion and respect. In his charge to the grand jury in 
1816, the chief justice gave an interesting sketch of 
his friend's judicial character, marked by a deep and 
solemn sense of vvhat he and the whole community 
had lost in his death. 

In 1816, the republican party came again into 
power, and having never acquiesced in the judiciary 
act of 1813, as constitutional, one of their first mea- 
sures was to rescind it, and Mr. Smith found himself 
again a practising lawyer. His business returned to 
him, and he was able, in a few years, to lay up the 
competency he had desired as a provision for old age. 
But another generation had come forward at the bar, 
some of whom took, perhaps, a malicious satisfaction 



1 When nearly twenty years afterwards, a young man, whose Christian 
name was Caleb Ellis, applied to be admitted as a beneficiary at Phil- 
lips Exeter Academy, Judge Smith asked, with a good deal of feeling, 
if any but a worthy youth could bear that name, and acknowledged that 
he could not help being, by this circumstance, prepossessed in favor of 
the application. 



280 \AVK ov jvuav. s>irni. 

ill goailiiiLi ami initatiiii; as an ailvorato, one to whose 
authorit> as a jiuli^v, tliov luul boon obliiiCHl to sub- 
mit. Ho luul iiovor boon nioro ablo or a nioio t'or- 
niiclablo (^ppoiiout than at this tinu* ; but ho had spont 
too laruo a portion ot' liis ht'o in a ciilVoront station to 
retain a keen roHsh tor the warfare that boloni^s to 
tlie prolession. It may bo, too, that thoro was no 
great eordiality of feeHng between himsc^lf and tlie 
newly appointed eonrt. On one oeeasion, a smart 
young lawyer was indulging in the most unbeeoming 
abuse, eonunenting on his }>ersonal ap}>earanee, and 
partieularly on his old drab surtout, in a manner 
whieh the court plaiidy ought to have rebuked. Al- 
ter bearing it for some time, Mr. > Smith, in that tone 
of cutting irony whieh he knew so well how to use, 
dryly said, '' As the court consider this decent, 1 of 
course, am bound so to regard it." It is easy to im- 
derstand how, under such circumstances, with the 
feelings and habits whieh he nmst have aecjuired as a 
judge, and the ill-natured allusions that were often 
made to his former position, the ordinary practice at 
the bar might have become exceedingly irkson\e to him. 
Once, on coming out of the court-house, he said to 
an old ac(|uaintance, that if, on leaving this world he 
should be obliged, as a renibntion for his sins, to re- 
sume the i>ractice of the law, he should say with 
Cain, '^ ^fy punishment is greater than I can bear." 
The following aneeilotes, whieh are told of ^fr. 
Smith, savor more of the ready wit of the advocate 
than the severe truthfulness of the judge. In a cause 
which he was to argue, a man by the name of Haines 
was an important witness on the opposite side, and 



LIFE OF ji;;>rjK -;mjtij. ^'^l 

many witncHHCS had h^;crj jfjt.rodij<'/;d to hIiow tjjat. no 
T('\\''U\fjt could bo \>\h.cJ'A upon his testimony. Jn 
opfKjhition to thoHO witncssoH. ono 'i'ruoworlhy Gove 
JJearf>orn. a man of :-;ome ht.t.le corj-equenoo. t/.'Stificd 
that ifainos was a rrjarj to bo roliod ujjofj. Mr. 
Smith in his argurnont, speaking of" the stronr/ ovi- 
denrxj a^^ainst Haines's character, f'jm<}\\(\(A by Bay- 
inj:^, ''All who liave ever known him, t/;stify in tfjo 
most decided manner that he is not to be trusted, 
excofjt 'i'rueworthy Gove iJearborn — a rnarj just like 
him."' 7"his was spoken in tfie most cfjnternptuous 
manner, and as if the witness were utterly unworthy 
of notice, not a word was added. Mr. Dearborn, as 
wa« natural enough, was exceedingly angry, and, df> 
termining to be revenged, went to Mr. Smith's lodg- 
ings, and told him that he should bear such insult 
and abuse from no man. however elevated fjjs posi- 
tion. Mr. Sinitl), with a most g^xxi-humored and 
comic expression, replied, '• What did I say ? You 
testified that liaines was a man of excellent charac- 
ter, and I said that you were just like him.'' 

Mr. Mason once told Mr. Smith that, having been 
recently looking over the criminal calendar of the 
English courts, he was surprised to find there so 
many persons bearing his name, and asked how it 
happened. '• ()\\^'' said he, '• when they got into 
difficulty, they took the respectable name of Smith ; 
but it generally turned out that their re^il name was 
Mason." 

Mr. Smith lost the last cause that he ever argued. 
On coming out of the court-house, he said to some 

one near him, that if that fool of a P , (one of his 

24* 



282 LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 

witnesses,) had not sworn so badly, his cUent would 
have got his cause. The remark was repeated by 
some good-natured friend to Colonel P , who af- 
ter several years, and being reduced to extreme pov- 
erty, called on Mr. Smith. Having enjoyed himself 
very much during a long conversation with him, he 
mentioned what he understood Mr. Smith had said 
of him. Instantly, with a look of the greatest sur- 
prise, Mr. Smith inquired, " Now, Colonel P , I 

put it to you to say, does that sound at all like 
me ? " " No, it does not, and I always maintained 
that you never said it." 

Whatever Mr. Smith may have found at this pe- 
riod of his life to vex and irritate him in the court- 
room, he never carried his troubles home ; and in his 
practice there was always enough of serious and solid 
labor to give full employment to his mind. He de- 
lighted to investigate cases which put into requisition 
all his knowledge and strength, and he was retained 
in most of the important causes that came before the 
New Hampshire courts. Of these, the famous Dart- 
mouth College case, was, undoubtedly, by far the 
most important, whether viewed in relation to the legal 
considerations and the serious consequences involved 
in it, the interest it awakened in the public mind, 
the manner in which it was connected with the polit- 
ical action of the day, or the learning and ability with 
which the rights of the college were maintained. 
President Brown, whose life of rare usefulness and 
yet greater promise, was closed by an early death, 
might well say, as he did in one of his last letters on 
the subject to Mr. Smith, " Whatever depends on 



LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 283 

man, I know, is uncertain ; but from all I can learn 
here and elsewhere, I have a great degree of confi- 
dence, that the cause is gained. Should this be the 
event, (and indeed whether it be or not,) we shall 
always entertain a lively sense of gratitude to those 
gentlemen, who ' have stood in the gap,' and so no- 
bly sustained the contest. And may we not forget 
our obligations to Him, who has bestowed on our 
wisest counsellors their talents, and by whom ' princes 
decree justice.' " The college, in 1819, passed a 
vote requesting each of the advocates, by whom their 
rights had been so ably maintained, to sit for his por- 
trait ; but the funds of the institution were in such a 
state that the intention was allowed to pass for the 
deed, till, in 1835, it was carried into effect by one 
whom the poor and the fatherless, and he that was 
ready to perish, will remember with grateful benedic- 
tions at that hour when, of all our actions, the thought 
only of what we have done for others can bring con- 
solation or support.' 

1 The advocates of the college were Jeremiah Smith. Jeremiah Mason, 
Daniel Webster, and Thomas Hopkinson. 



CHAPTER X. 

1820. 

RETIRES FROM BUSINESS FORTUNE FAMILY 

TEMPERAMENT OCCUPATION IN RETIREMENT. 

In 1820, having now reached the sixty-first year 
of his age, Judge Smith (for though no longer hold- 
ing the office, he was always called by that title,) 
withdrew from the active duties of his profession, in 
order to spend the remainder of his days in those 
tranquil pursuits and enjoyments, which are the fit- 
ting close of a laborious life. Few men have retired 
from business with more ample resources for a useful, 
serene, and happy old age. 

His health was better than it had been since he 
entered upon public life. His fortune, the fruit of 
his own industry and a judicious economy, through 
many years of public and private usefulness, was all 
that he desired. In early life he had been much in- 
terested in the business of his brother Samuel, a 
man of great enterprise, who did more, perhaps, 
than any other person, to introduce manufactures 
into New Hampshire. For more than ten years he 



LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 285 

placed in his brother's hands all that he laid up from 
his profession. At a later period, when Samuel had 
become exceedingly embarrassed in his affairs, he 
volunteered, though expecting to suffer heavy losses 
by it, to be surety for him to the amount of all that 
he possessed ; and when his brother's affairs had taken 
a more prosperous turn, in his final setdement, he gave 
him outright ten thousand dollars, having never at 
any time received a cent by way of profit from their 
connexion. Mrs. Smith was, on the death of her 
mother, entitled to a share of a considerable estate, 
but nothing was ever received except the privilege, 
and such her husband always considered it, of giving 
her two sisters a home for ten years. But in their 
domestic arrangements they had no foolish ambition, 
and exercising, at all times, a careful and judicious 
economy, they were able to lay up what was suffi- 
cient for their own wants, with something to spare 
for charity. 

In his family Judge Smith was particularly fortu- 
nate. Mrs. Smith, a woman of good sense, and of 
a refined and delicate nature, though of a slender 
constitution, was always a devoted wife and faithful 
mother. Their son, William, born the 31st of Au- 
gust, 1799, was possessed of rare natural endow- 
ments, and, at the time when his father withdrew 
from the profession, gave promise of distinguished 
success. His life, if it could be given from its com- 
mencement to its close, would furnish a sad, but 
interesting and instructive example to that large class 
of young men, who, without fixed principles or con- 
firmed habits of industry, hope by birth, genius, or 



^6 I, IKK OK .nncK s>n'rH. 

some raio con. biuation ot" rortunati^ oiri-iuustaiu*os, to 
win the [>ri/.os oi' lifo. llo luul unusual i|ui(.'Unoss 
of parts, and whilo at l''\(ior Acadoniy apjH\uvil to 
gToat ailvanta^o in his stucTu's. \\v t iittMiil Harvard 
Colloi^e Nvhon very younii, and had not strength to 
resist tho unt'avorablo intluonots ot* tho placo, but 
noi:lootod his lessons, \\as prc^Mnl u[H>n by t^vil asso- 
ciates, wasted his time and nlOlu\^ , anil without any 
deeidedlv vicious habits, was twice suspendcul ihuiui; 
his college course, and tinally took his uidionoreil 
deuree in ISH. His KMteis, w litiiMi to his iViends 
at home chuinu this time, show the det^p wretcheil- 
ness of such a life. He was constaiuly resi>lvini:, 
but without tho ouciiiy to cany his resolutions into 
elVoct ; sutVerinu- all the anguish oi' repoutauce, >vith 
none oi' its better tVnits. but n^pentiui^* to-day, only 
to fall ami rt^jHMil a^ain more bittiMly to-morrow ; 
never losing- his sense oi' rii^ht, his utMierous feel- 
iui;s, or his yearning after intellectual i^rinitness, 
but conscious all the w hile oi powers to which ho 
was do'iuix no justice, anil oi' e\[>ectations on the 
part oi his frieiuls, which he was cruelly tlisap- 
pointiiiLV ; yet weak in purpi>se, and on acc-ount of 
that weakness doomed to i^ive u[> all that he most 
valued and desireil. lie had no taste for bad com- 
pany, but had not ilu^ manliness to resist anil over- 
come its evil inlUiences. His sympathies were too 
quick for his satety, and thoui^h he appreciateil and 
enjoyed the best society, yet he was not secure an 
liour when beyond its reach ; but through the inlirinity 
of his will, the streui^th of his social leeliniis and his 
love of approbation, was carried away by the cur- 



rent info vvliiolj h'; lujpfM.-fjod Vo i'.iW. ii is f;jlljrr 
h;iw, vvillj <Ua:\> (■j)H<j:n\. }io\v :ill this fiiiiKt cucJ. and Ijjh 
J(;Uors, a nin^iilar union of kindnoss and Hovority, of 
wino counsol, tonrjor lifl'.-olio/j. rjfKJ .sfjarp rohukf-, 
<;vincin;4 lliat Ik^ wan alwjjyH r(;ady to for^dvf; and 
overlook l}i«i j>ast, aH Hoon as any firorniso of" arncrjd- 
rrjont. f;<jijld ho soo-n. nfiow Ijow (Jof;[>ly lijs fooJifjpfH 
vvoro vvounrJorJ. and liow niijf;li rnoro- lio f;arod for llio 
^^ood of liJH <:}iildj tljan for uny jjrrjfjjtjons schornoH 
ifi.'il. Iio ffii;.dit, lijivo forrnod in f:ofinf;xion with Ijjrn. 

A'oar lJj<^ ond of" Williijni's first, yoar ifj collo^e, 
liis fatfio-r, liavin;.^ }if;.'ir(J of" liis no;.df;otirj^' }jis oxor- 
<:isoH, af'lor Hpo-;jkin^' <A' l.jjo rnirj ihaf. njiisl. ho tfjo 
jnournf'uJ f>ijt noooHsary consorjuonco of" Huofj }jahit>:. 
ifjus warns and f.xpoHtulat.oH : '• Nood I rorrjind you 
that, you will not \)<: thr; (>nly nufforor ? 1 krjow tiiat 
orrors in conduf:t arr- Koldotn sirj^do. Thoy aro a 
fruitful fjjfuily. 'J'lio wasto of rnonoy loads to asso- 
ciation witli tlio idio an(J disHip;itf:(J Jt is 

natural that J should soo hoyorjd tho first act in tfjis 
<ir.'i,rna. and it fills mo witfi p;iirj arjd mortification 
J carjfiot doHcriho, ancj which rjofjc hut a j^arcnt can 
fully understand. . . . Write to me freely, fully. 
J.et rne see and krjow erjou^di of your heart to fiope 
that the next year, if you should have a next, will 
^ive me more pleasure than ifie last. It is not dis- 
p^raceful to you to need a faithful friend, but ex- 
tremely wron^ to decline that aid when offered, es- 
pecially by your most afR'ctionate father." 

The following letter to Mrs, Smith, will give some 
idea of what he siiff(;red. 

" JJovr-r, 'J'uesfl;jy everJin;^ My (\(:',ir wife : The 



LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 

unpleasant feelings I had when I left you, did not 
forsake me on the road. I, even I, made a great 
mistake, in taking a sleigh. The road was ten times 
worse than I expected. ... I was near five hours 
on the road, and travelled on foot nearly half the 
way. This heated me, and the evening was sharp, 
so that I took cold, and am rheumatic. But all 
these things arc not worth regarding ; they concern 
myself only, and will soon be over. But my mind 
is occupied with W. When I am from him, I do 
not feel less grieved for the past and less gloomy as 
to the future ; but it is of a different and milder sort. 
If children could only know what their parents feel, 
when they see them travelling in a road wliich they 
think leads to ruin, they would pause a little before 
they ventured farther in a path with which they can- 
not be acquainted. I could forgive one fault, and 
another, and another ; but a regular series from bad 
to worse, takes away all hope. It is not yet, thank 
God, come to that. But everything tends that way. 
All that is wanting is time. If the heart is callous 
at sixteen, what will it be at twenty-one ? If a small 
paltry gratification outweighs a parent's authority, 
displeasure, unhappiness ; if it leads to the sacrifice 
of truth, honor, honesty, what will be the end 
thereof, when the appetite increases and the power of 
resistance weakens ? 

" I know you will say, why indulge these melan- 
choly forebodings ? I do not willingly indulge them. 
Gladly would I exchange them for more pleas- 
urable sensations. But what shall I gain by shutting 
my eyes and stopping my ears ? Do not deceive me, 



LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 289 

but give me reason on nny return to hope. But I 
must have reason, evidence. I cannot, if I would, 
believe against evidence. It is not in my nature to 
do so. I am too old to change ; I hope he is not. 
Show him this. Ask him to give me a pledge, secu- 
rity for his good conduct. At present I will accept, 
gladly accept, real contrition, and will trust to time 
to prove it genuine. But then good works must fol- 
low immediately and continuedly. He will, perhaps, 
wonder that I speak of his past conduct in such 
severe terms. I see the future. I could forgive the 
past. I thought I had a great deal to say, but I find 
I have only one single idea. I can think of nothing 
else. It is eleven o'clock at night. God bless you 
all. Heaven knows that I fervently offer up this 
prayer, and include W. in it." 

After leaving college, William read law in his 
father's office, being then perfectly correct in his 
conduct. As it respects reading connected with his 
profession, he was very negligent until about three 
months before he was admitted to the bar, wlien his 
father reminded him how short the time was before 
his examination, and how ignorant he was of the 
subjects on which he was to be examined. From 
that time till his admittance, he applied himself with 
diligence, and his father was astonished at the 
amount of knowledge he acquired in so short a time. 
No young man of his age was more generally popu- 
lar, and there was no one of whom higher expecta- 
tions were formed. He was frank and generous to 
excess, winning in his manners, animated and inter- 
esting in conversation, reading with a surprising 
25 



5^90 i.TVF. ov jrr»OF. smith. 

rnp'ulity. yot lonioniboriiii: what ho road, aiul havliii: 
always at haiul a lari^o aiul various su}>ply o( intor- 
estini:- knowlodizo. whilo his quiok ami aotivo sym- 
pafhios. with his ontiro tVooiloin iVoin anythiin^- Uke 
prido or liaimlitinoss, toiind thoir way to tho hoarts of 
tlie poor and lVioiulk\^s who iniiiht oomo within his 
roaoh. llo was a i^onoral lavorilo in sooiot\, and 
was olioson a nionibor ot" tho Aow Hainpshiro louis- 
latiire whon only twonty-two yoars okl, boinj^-, as his 
sister saiil with boconiini:' prido in writing- to a Iriond, 
one ot' tho youui^osi nionibors that had ovor boon 
choson to that otlioo. 

l>ut tho oharni ot' Judi^o Smith's homo, and that 
wliioh mailo it what it was to him, and those who 
visitoil it tor yoars, was his daughter Ariana. The 
connootion botwoon hor and her lather was the most 
beantitnl that I liavo ovor known between parent and 
child. There was a porteet harmony, a sympathy 
and union, suoli as we road of in books rather than 
hope to tind in real lii'o. Thoir oharaeters were 
formed al'ter the same model, save only that hers was 
subdued by the graeo and sotlnoss of her sex. They 
read, oonvorsod, travelled toiiother, she en^agini;- in 
whatever miglit add to his comt'ort, and he rojoioinii 
as heartily in hers. She was born the "2^th of De- 
cember. 1197. Tho unusual name she bore was in- 
herited throui^h a line of i^randmothers iVom a Bohe- 
mian branch of hor mother's family. Kxistonee was 
to iter a continued romance. She lau^liod, wept, 
studied, went throui^h the regular routine of house- 
hold cares, hail hor little weaknesses, was not without 
some jiortion of female vanity, loved attention, ami 



LIFK OF Jf;i>r;K H.VIITH. S^91 

was riOt. indJirorf;rit to fJro:-;s, nor to anytfjin^^ in which 
otjjor ^irJH took an int.oro.st, and yot. .sfic wan Jiko no 
orjo oIho. Hot po*rsorjal af^f^caranco was fioouliar to 
}iorsf;]f. \i<:r clcur wliit<i oorrip|f;xion. contrasting 
with her Jorj;_; f>lack ijair arjd oyc-lasljcs. her Jargc 
hhjc eyes, lookirjr.^ out with anirnatiou from a coufjte- 
riarjce always calm, infiir;atirj^^ at tfje <-;arne tirrjc ex- 
citement and rejjose, wf;re such as belon^^ed to no 
one else, iier voice, subdued and [;assir>nless, con- 
trasted sin^nilarly witfi the fervor of fjer words, ifer 
devotiorj to domestic duties, and particularly to lier 
mother throu;.di years of painful disease, rrjigfit, but 
for the peculiar elasticity oi' her rnirjrj, have worn 
her down, yet to tfie last she was like one whose life 
liad been a f>erpetual sunsliine. Her enthusiasm 
rnigfit have betrayed her into irjdiscretions but for the 
prudent self-control tliat never forsook her ; and the 
rare good sense, that ran througfi all her conduct, 
might have made her common-place but for the en- 
thusiasm of \i(-r nature;. 'J'he great extent of lier 
reading, and the accuracy of lier knowledge in the 
more solid as well as in the ligfjter branches of litera- 
ture, might fiave made lier pedantic, were it not, as 
her father said, tfiat she was more studious to con- 
ceal than to exhibit her accomplishments. " She 
had,'' lie said,' when his lieart was wrung witfj the 
anguish of bereavement, "a mind intelligent and in- 
genuous, having learning enougfi to give rehnement 
to her taste, and far too much taste to make preten- 
sions to learning. She liad a feminine high-minded- 

' Ctuotin'.f, in part, from Moore's Byron. 



292 LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 

ness." '' She often shined in conversation, but never 
strove to shine." " As far as regards hterature, she 
never (in conversation) aimed at doing her best ; and 
yet she was not indiflerent to the opinion of her 
father and her friends." Her almost passionate love 
of society, and the attentions with which she was 
loaded, when in the fashionable world, by those 
whose attentions are most flattering to a woman of 
sense and refinement, might have made her giddy ; 
her love of nature, of rural life, and the simple inter- 
course of the country, might have made her shy and 
timid, but for the genuineness of her feelings and 
the simplicity of her character. " I rely," said her 
father, " with entire confidence on your good taste 
and discretion — two things oftener united than is 
commonly thought." At a large party in the city it 
might seem as if she had no heart or thought for 
anything else ; but she gladly returned to the quiet 
home, where almost all her time was spent, and there 
appeared as if she had never been absent, or had 
gone abroad only to bring back new treasures for the 
enjoyment of her friends. Substantial books were 
read, kind acts and serious duties performed, as if 
they were only a pastime or amusement. Nothing 
was ever said of them, and therefore her letters and 
her usual intercourse with society gave only the most 
superficial view of her mind. Her charities, like the 
charities of Heaven, came often without revealing 
the hand that brought them. She was equally at 
home among diflerent classes of people. In conver- 
sation with" the most eminent and gifted she be- 
trayed no consciousness of self-distrust, and with 



LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 293 

the humblest she exhibited no marks of pride and 
no appearance of condescension, but talked and 
sympathized with them as friends. The woman 
who for several years had lived in the house as a 
cook, she regarded not merely as a faithful servant, 
but as a sister. The poor student at the academy, 
bashful, unformed, and desponding, soon felt at ease 
with her, and, learning to look with more respect 
upon himself, began to feel new powers and new 
hopes quickening within him. The remarkable fea- 
ture of her mind, however, that which stood out 
above all the rest, which threw its brightness over 
her whole hfe, and which neither disappointment, 
nor sickness nor sorrow could ever shade, was the 
disposition not only to see all that there was of ex- 
cellence around her, but to view men and things in 
the liglit of their virtues rather than through their 
faults. Her thoughts and conversation were not in- 
fected by the sickly atmosphere, nor her spirit dark- 
ened by the sins, of society. She had too much 
penetration to be ignorant of what was disagreeable 
or wrong, but the evil she saw did not abide with 
her, and left no mark either upon her countenance 
or her mind. I do not remember ever to have re- 
ceived from her an unpleasant or unfavorable im- 
pression of any one ; and in all her letters, written, 
as many of them were, with the most entire and 
child-like unreserve, I have not found, except in a 
single instance, a remark wliich could be construed 
into anything like unkindness or a want of respect 
for others. This charity whicli thinketh no evil, and 
through which the soul, like a healthy eye, is kept 
25* 



294 LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 

pure from outward touch, was not in her case a cher- 
ished priiici{>le, but ratlier an original endowment, 
disturbed sometimes by momentary jealousies and 
rivalships, by wrongs received or witnessed, but 
quickly recovering itself, and going cheerfully along 
its pleasant path. 

Miss Smith had grown up like other girls, except 
that she was educated almost without any formal 
system of instruction. Sometimes a student in her 
father's otlice would instruct her, and she spent a 
short time at school at Portsmouth, where she was 
not subjected to the uncertain influences of a board- 
ing-house, but enjoyed the kind and almost parental 
hospitality of Mr. and Mrs. Mason. But while her 
father was at home she was his constant companion, 
reading the same books, interested in whatever con- 
cerned or interested him, her taste and cliaracter 
formed more through his influence than through all 
others combined^ As a young girl, she might be 
seen romping through the fields, riding upon a load 
of hay, or assisting her mother, who was extremely 
fond of gardening, and who, during the summer, 
spent no small portion of her time in the open air, 
adorning the grounds. 15ooks, however, were Ari- 
ana's especial delight, and when she first grew up, 
her parents would say to each other, " What can we 
do for this girl? What can we buy for her? She 
cares nothing about dress as other girls do." But 
this inditference to dress, and exclusive preference 
for books, passed away as she mingled more with the 
world. 

Ariana's letters to her young friends show an en- 



LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 295 

thusiastic and romantic atlachment to lior fjither. 
May II, IH'^O. " I particularly like the end of May, 
and bc^innin<^of June, to receive my friends, because 
my fatlier is then certainly at home." April 10, 
] 821 . " My father leaves us next Monday, for many 
weeks. I hope you will pity our desolate state, and 
enliven us by frequent letters." July 17, 1821. 
'' My dear Mary, you don't know how mucli father 
misses the fair hand that used to shower upon him 
rose-buds last summer. lie continues, however, to 
wear a bouquet, wfiich is regularly changed twice a 

day Coming out of church Sunday, and 

looking round to see father, I recognized him by his 
beautiful nosegay of pinks and rose-buds." May 23, 
1822. " I am writing with a pen of father's. What 
gallant and sincere sayings it would trace, if guided 
by its master's hand ; but he is long since asleep, and 
I must content myself with sending our plain and 
unornamented thanks, love, respects, good wishes, 
&-C. to all your family." ' 

In 1809, Judge Smith had moved a little out of 
the village to an estate which he had recently pur- 
chased, and on which he continued to live more than 
thirty years. It was a pleasant spot, with doej) woods 
in the rear, long fields and pastures extending above, 
and the town of Exeter below ; a j>lace of almost 
perfect retirement, and yet near the abodes of men. 



1 These extracts are all from lellors to Miss Mary J. Holmes, daugh- 
ter of the Rev. Abiel Holmes, D. D., of Cambridge, and afterwards the 
wife of Usher Parsons, M. D., of Providence. She died in the summer 
of ld24. 



»^i>0 LIKK OF JrOCK. SMITH. 

As liino passotl on. now Intuit ios woro constantly 
growini:: u\^ iindor Mrs. Smith's oaro. anii ovorv tioo, 
shrub, vino and tiowor. tho arbors, and tho walks 
loadiui: back into an almost nicasuroloss oMont ol' 
wood, boro marks ot' her tasto, and woro tho t'ruits ot' 
lior constant personal attention. The plcasantcst part, 
ot' tho house, and indeed o( the estati\ \Nas tho 
library, a larue room tilled with books, which, while it 
servcil as an otiice for the juiliic, was always, but 
more especially at'ter he had ^iven up business, open 
to all the I'amily and their visiters. Here the daugh- 
ter delii:hted to store her mind with knowledi^e : here 
the juili^e went throu:jh his severest labors, and here 
their ** idle hours " were -• not idly spent," while some 
new work ot" taste or I'ancy was read aloud, and the 
readini: ot'ten susjuMuleil to ascertain the exact mean- 
ing or pronunciation ot' some doubtful word, to search 
for information that might clear up some dark allu- 
sion, or to make room for such remarks as woro sug- 
gested by what they read.' 

Such was Jud^e Smith's t'amilv when he retired 



1 No account of Judsio Smitli's I'amily at that time would bo con\plotc, 
which tailed to make honoraMo moulion of tho oats, which varioii at 
ditVcront times, tVom one to tive in number. The judire would take up 
half an hour of more at the breakiast table, in dotailinsj. perhaps, a loner 
couvorsatiou which had been overheard among these iuterestins? in- 
mates, describiuir sometimes their own troubles or loves, and sometimes 
commenting on the motives and conduct of others. The humor of these 
extempore fables was otteu irresistible, and not a little sly satire amt 
instruction as well as amusement, was administered by the sagncious 
cats to other members of the liouschold. From J. S. to his ilaughter, 
January, iSlS : ''The fifth member of our tireside party says, or seems 
to say, that she wishes you at home, and rcirrets that she was not taught 
to write, that she might communicate with you at Boston. So you sec 
you are kindly remembered by all." 



from \)\i~\hf:~.H.U!i<\ v(:ry i(;w urc. Uio hoij'';f;fiolfJ'-; vvfiif:fi 
r:orit;jifi Hucfi rrjfitoriulH for irjstruotion jjrid li;i[jjjirjr;HHj 
or Hu^Ji roHOurr:r;H for tho ^lufurnri of lifo-. 'i'fioro wjjh. 
with;)), ;j. sort, of ro/Diintif; irjtr;ro-Ht., wljjfjj J lujvo \i(Mr(\ 
(\(:H(:n\)(;<\ f>y youfi;/ fK.rsoriH. who occjjsiofjJilly vl:-;it/;d 
thoTii from ;if>ro;)fJ, jjs fjorfoctly ffiKcinatirjf/. '• J firnt 
\)cj:uii\(: u';(\\\u\fiUj\ with tfjf; fijfriily,'' sayH fj. InHy vvlio 
kfir;w woJI liow to u\)\)r('J:\iiU: t.horr). ■' in J^IH, and 
ui'.i(\<- a lit.tlo visit, at. tfi^;ir }ia[>[>y }lor^J^•. which w?js 
ro|jf;;itf;fj ifj \H-M.<i\\(\ tho im;j;/o uj^on thf; [>;jrt. of tho 
jufJ'.^o. of fatho-rJy ton.'JorfjosH and conjui/a) rovoronco 
as vvr;IJ ;js affoction. of fihal rio-votion in Ariana, and 
of matronly componuro- in Mrn. Srriitfi; ijnitf;d wjtfi «o 
int.irn.'il'; o, \)\i:u(\\i\ij of hf;r own hcin,'^ irj tfi^it, of }iOr 
}iij:s[>arjd and cljijrjron. as to r<:n(\(:r \i(:r jjhnost. uncon- 
scious of hor separate existence. h;js reniairjed indeli- 
f>ly impressed on my n\(A(i()ry. ns orje of tfie lovehest 
fjictures of domestic fehcity, wljicfi it. was ever my Jot 
to witness; wfiile tfje judge's ^^enial Ijurnorand flash- 
ifjrr wit tfjrewa h;ilo round tfie scene. wfiif;fj ilhjmined 
it like sunhjjfjt.'' It is fjeheved that tfje following from 
a venerafjle rJivine ' of great learning, ability and social 
wortli. would fje a fair transcrif^t of the feelings of 
rnarjy, if not most, of JufJge Srnitlj's visiters. "The 
deligfitful visit at your hospitable mansion, and the 
rich feasting of the soul, • from enrJy rnorrj till noorj of 
night,' tfiree dfjys in successiorj, will not soon be for- 
gotterj, whatever may be the future scenes tlirough 
whicfi f }i?jve to pJiss." 

iiooks were thf^ great resource of Judge Smith's 



298 LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 

private Iiours. In the busiest period, he had always 
found time for the cultivation of letters, and except 
some of the poets, for whom he had little taste, no 
department of literature was left unexplored. He 
had great confidence in the ancient classics as a 
branch of liberal culture, and preserved to the last a 
keen relish for classical allusions and expressions. He 
however attributed to them no miraculous efficacy. 
" Greek and Latin," he said, " cannot give men sense, 
if they have it not in their native language." He was 
intimately acquainted with the whole field of English 
literature, entering upon its lighter branches as a 
pastime, and reading history with the eye of a law- 
yer, statesman, philosopher and man. But of all the 
departments of knowledge, out of his profession, there 
was none for which he had so strong an original turn, 
and to which he had given so much attention as the- 
ology. Few professed theologians have so thoroughly 
investigated the grounds of natural and revealed reli- 
gion, or the distinctive features of Christianity. Nor 
was it merely as an intellectual study, that he had 
looked into these subjects. Whatever may have 
been sometimes inferred from his peculiar mode of 
expression, he had always clear convictions of the 
truth, and an unfeigned reverence for the principles 
of our faith. Though for many years the member of a 
church, he was never loud in his religious professions. 
Indeed he was so disgusted by the levity with which 
the most sacred of names, and the most solemn of 
subjects are sometimes bandied about by religious 
people, and he so shrunk from every semblance of 
ostentation or cant, that it was not easy to see at once 



LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 299" 

from his conversation or outward conduct how deeply 
these things entered into his character.' 

Judge Smith's temperament was one«of unbroken 
cheerfuhiess.^ He had gone through the assaults of 
party violence, he had borne the honors, and some- 
times experienced the disappointments of public life, 
but the prevailing sentiment, as he looked back on 
the past, was one of cheerful satisfaction and grati- 
tude. He carried with him the experience of a long 
life, and the memory of the great men who had left 
the stage, but who were still companions of his 
thoughts. Whatever he may have been in the keen- 
ness of personal rivalship or the heat of political strife, 
he retained but slightly the sense of personal injury, 
and towards many of his political opponents, cher- 
ished feelings of unusual kindness and respect. He 
was not haunted by the consciousness of iiaving sacri- 
ficed his sense of duty or the public good, to party 
ends or personal ambition ; and to be at peace with 
one's self, is a wonderful preservative of kind feelings 
towards others. 



1 In a letter to his daughter, August 5, 1810, he says, " I hope you at- 
tend church regularly, my dear. It is no matter what the form of reli- 
gion is, but it is absolulely necessary that we should have the substance, 
and though going to church is not religion, it is one of the means to be- 
come religious." 

2 These lines, taken from Judge Smith's common-place book, seem to 
have been copied there, because they so well describe his own character : 

" Then, for the fabric of my mind, 
'T is mair to mirth than grief inclined ; 
I rather choose to laugh at folly 
Than show dislike by meh\ncholy ; 
Weel judging a sour, heavy face. 
Is not the truest mark of grace." 



300 LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 

Thus in the midst of ahniidancc, with his fjunily 
about hiui, and his strenglli unimpaired, Judge Smitli 
witlidrevv from the labors and cares of his profession, 
carrying with him to his retreat those intellectual 
tastes and attainments which dignify the leisure and 
adorn the retirement of age, and which, when joined to 
a clear conscience and a religious trust, may furnish 
inexhaustible sources of occupation, amusement and 
thought; enabling him, who possesses them, to be 
still extensively useful to others here, and to prepare 
for that world in which the distinctions, possessions, 
and even the intellectual ac(|uiiements of tlie present 
life shall be of small account. 

Judge Smitli gave some attention to agriculture, 
and it took him two or three years to fmish all the 
professional engagements which he had ui)on his 
hands. In addilion to this, it was no small mjitler to 
collect the debts that were due to him from ditVcrent 
parts of the state. The following extracts from busi- 
ness letters to various ])ersons, in respect to small 
sums which he had requested them to collect, show 
how many other feelings mingled with those of the 
collector. 

From a letter to William Gordon, Estp, the son of 
his old and highly valued friend of the same name. 
January 22, 1821. " But assuredly I have received 
enough. The dilTcrence is not a compensation for 
your trouble. Let this acquit you of all demands, 
and carry with it my respects to your good mother, 
and thanks from myself for your faithful agency in a 
few small things. I hope you will be faithful in more 
important concerns." 



LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 301 

To the Hon. B. J. Gilbert. Feb. 25, 1823. " Be- 
ing dead in law, I am settling nj> as well as I can my 
business accounts, Slc, while living. I send you 
minutes of my fees, &c., in three actions. The sums 
are entirely at your disposal ; fix them as they should 
be. ... 1 am desirous, as you may well suppose, of 
shuflling off this mortal coil and gross concern of pelf, 
so as to have nothing left but to live intellectually, 
and, I hope, with due reference to the next state in 
the chain of being, which, to a man of sixty-three, 
cannot be far off. 1 shall always cherish the kindest 
remembrances of your acts and sayings, and the live- 
liest wishes for your happiness. Let there be no 
black spot in your escutcheon. I am wonderfully 
well, the better that I am no longer a sweeper in the 
Augean stable, or any other stable. I sweep my own 
nice, snug, warm room, surrounded by a goodly num- 
ber of excellent old, silent friends, whom 1 read and 
enjoy much. Nothing would give me more pleasure 
than to find occasionally one talking one, videlicet 
yourself. Oh Baron, Baron, (^non Romo) quando 
te aspiciamy 

To Richard Fletcher, Esq., Feb. 25, 1823. " I need 
not say to you, (one of the initiated,) that this is the 
beggarly account of miserable remnants and sweep- 
ings of a lawyer's office. It proves the end is near, 
nay, already come, and I am most wonderfully well." 

To John Nelson, Esq., Jan. 4, 182G. " I have 
been always in the habit of looking back at the 
beginning of every new year. You will tlierefore 
excuse my giving you this trouble. 1 have still many 
shreds and parings scattered about, which 1 am 
20 



302 LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 

anxious to gather, aiitl form into a garment for the 
winter of age." 

To tlio Hon. E. S. L. Livermore. Feb. 6, 18-2(>. 
" Our friend lately assured me that all was well on 
the score of taxes, Sj.c., but as he at the same time 
assured me he was honest, and I might safely rely on 
liim, [cum ))nillis aliis) I immediately began to feel 
suspicious.'' 

[These suspicions proved just ; and in general is 
there not ground for mistrust, when extraordinary 
professions of sincerity or honesty are needlessly 
made ?] 

To H. G. Cilley, Esq. Jan. 1, 1827. " I have a 
judgment against R. B. Senior. The old man de- 
clined dying at that time. His sons applied for 
guardiansliij) over him, to enable them to get his 
estate sooner than by the course of nature. I re- 
sisted, succeeded, and they got away his estate by 
other ways and means. I liave also a note against 
honest D. H. His hopes from death of father-in- 
law are so for realized that the good old man is dead, 
but as to all beyond, (I do not mean the elVect of 
death on the colonel, l)ut on II.) I am in the situa- 
tion of the United States' circuit court, Jay and 
others, as Sewall pleasantly told them, 'Your honors 
mean well, but your honors don't know.' I have also 
a note against N. D., another honest man of your 
town, for money lent years ago. He pleads poverty, 
the honestest plea he ever made. I have pretty 
many other debts in the same doleful situation. Oh, 
how I have been gulled by mankind ! But these are 
all that honor Deerfield with their permanent resi- 
dence." 



MFE OF JUDGR SMITIT. ,303 

A letter to Henry H. JMiIlcr, Es(|. may servo as a 
specimen of Jud^r; Sinitli's s[)rii,djtrmess, as well as of 
liis reinarkal)le rriinulenciss in little things. " J)ear 
sir: 1 want two pjiirs of castors or rollers, to make 
my bed move easily forward and l)nek,and enrinotfind 
suefi as 1 want nearer than Mr. (iuiney's great city of 
Boston, and cannot think of a less {)ersonage to pro- 
cure them for me than II. If. Fuller, l']sq., coinisellor 
at law, Slc. &c. They ;i,re not to be swivelled so as 
to go zigzag. I am done with all zigzagging, twist- 
ing, turning, &c., having left tlic profession, and am 
in the straight line of things, and want my bedstead 
to move back and forward in sucfi a line. I prefer 
iron (cast) to copper or brass. I am, for the reason 
aforesaid, done with all brass composition, &.c. They 
must be precisely on the plan of window-shutters, 
only larger; particularly and essentially, the roller 
must be at least an inch or an inch and a half, in- 
stead of a half inch in length ; the diameter, larger 
or smaller, is of little conserjuence, and the gudgeon 
of the roller is fastened (i. e. plays) in a f)rojection 
from the i>late ; the plate screws on to the shutter or 
leg of the bedstead. This fashion is preferred, be- 
cause it will not raise the bedstead more than one- 
sixth of an inch, and, regarding the place into which 
the bedstead is to be ))Iace(l, I am limited in height. 
It just occurs to me that I might at once have ad- 
dressed myself to my friend J)eacon May, in sua 
arte: but then I must leave out the joke on brass, 
Slc, and, as l^ilate said, ' What is writt(;n is written,' 
to which I add, 'and sent to my friend, and from his 
friend; J. S." 



304 LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 

Judge Smitli, though he no longer practised the 
law as a profession, still kept up his interest in it. 
W riling to Mr. Webster, in 18:26, respecting Ed- 
ward Livingston's system of penal law for Louisiana, 
he says : " I think much better of the plan of this 
young state from the examination, than I had sup- 
posed I should. Indeed I think it does great credit 
to Mr. Livingston's learning, talents, and industry, 
and I have a strong desire to see and possess the 
whole. It has occurred to me that you, probably, 
have the same desire to possess these writings, and 
can without much trouble procure them for me. 
Since I have abandoned the law as a trade, I have 
looked a little into it as a science, and, I verily 
believe, have as much pleasure in it now as for- 
merly." This desire was connnunicated by Mr. 
Webster to Mr. Livingston, who forwarded a copy 
of his work, in its then imperfect state, to Judge 
Smith, with the request that he would assist him, by 
making " such suggestions as might occur to him on 
its jierusal, either for correcting its errors, or supply- 
ing its omissions." To this Judge Smith replied : 
" A man of business can tell what he will do ; he 
may safely i>romise. But a man of no business can- 
not safely |)romise that he will do anything, and still 
more any particular thing at any given time. Thus 
much I can say, I shall certainly read your work, 
and carefully too. I have read it, like bills in con- 
gress, for the first time. If, on the second reading, 
anything occurs which can possibly be useful to you, 
I will note it. My knitting-work, as my friend 
Ames used to express it, is to put down the New 



LiFK OK jnixa: sivnTir. 305 

J'irif^lurHl law, wliorc; wf; Ikivo ;ill()Wf;(l il to IjjIu; IIkj 
|)I;h:o of iho I'lii^lisli." [ am not. u\)\(i to sny wlif:llir;r 
any riirtfi<;r (•onirrMinif'Jilion was niad^j, Jind indocfj 
the subject is inttodnccfl \\(r(i ''"'y ''^ '"' ill'isl ration 
of the manner in which Jud.L^e Smith still kept ii[) 
the study, if not the [)r;ietie(j of tfie seienet;, to 
whirJi his life h.'id been d(;voted. H*; continued to 
read the r(;[)ortK ot" intenistin^ eas(^s, and it was 
always pleasant to him to follow out an inj^^ejiious 
h;^^;il nr^Miment. ft w;is ;i, jjrc.uX satisfaetion to him 
to se(.' .'UKjther, n;iy a thini f^eneration, cominj^' on and 
showing th(Mr)S(;lves able not o/dy to uphold, [>ut to 
advane(; the c-aus(; of" jurisprudenee. Ho seldom ap- 
p(,'arrjd in i.\\() f:ourt-room. Tint last time, I think, 
that he h(;ard a cause argued, was in I'lssex county, 
Massachusetts. JIapf)enin^ to be in Sah;m, during 
the s(.'Ssion of" th(j court, he went in to see how it 
would com[)ar(.' with former times, ffr; heard Mr. 
Choate in one of" his earnest and brillianlly lo^dcal 
ar^'uments, and, though tin; style of" speak in^^ was not 
to his taste, lie was satisfif^l that thf;r(^ had l)een no 
falling ofi" in le^al af^ility since the best days of the 
Massachusetts bar. 

In 1824, the governor of 'Naw IIamf>shire wished 
to make Mr. Smith chief justice of the court of com- 
mon pleas, that office beinj^ then var-ant, but he was 
not willinj^ to (^n^^ape a^ain in public, life. 

As in the law, so also in [)olitics, thouj^h no longer 
an actor, .lud^e Smitli still retained liis interest, stu- 
dying the subject as a scifuice, and watching the 
course of events both in his own and forei^ai coun- 
tries. The remarks scattered throu'/h liis common- 
2G« 



306 



T.lVr OF JrPOV ^5MlTU. 



j^laoo-book. on (ho piiMio mumi niui intwsiiit^s of iho 
day. tluMiiih ofloii si^vi ro. >\tMi^ not. juMliaps. mow so 
than justioo iO(]uirot]. aiui \\(Mi^ al\Na\s. 1 l>ilu^vt\ 
writtiMi willioiit any {hms^mkiI loolniu ot nnlvinilinv^s. 
1 woll ivnitMnlnM \\\c llasli ot" indignation with \\ hioh 
ho oonnnontt\l on rn^sulonl .laokst^n's |H>hr\ . ot 
makiui^ tht^ plai't\< o[ all snboi\lina(o ollicois {o dopcwd 
on tlioir [H>litioal [>rot'oronoos. " I call np botoro my 
niinil." ho said, " ^^ ashin^ton asUinL: tho advioo ot' 
his rabinot in iw^ptuM. tor instanoo. to a distiin at- 
toiiu\v tor Now Uanipshiro. C>m^ roplios. 'A. is 
undonbtodh an ho!\t^st, oapabK^ man. bnt ho has dt>no 
nothing- lor us. anil his roniainin^ thoro will havo an 
unt'avorablo intlnonot^ on \ our rooloolion/ It'an}- 
thin^- oould havo nuuio that i^roat man st> tar t\>r^ot 
himsolt" as to ilraw Ins sword and tinnst it throiii^h 
another, it wmiKl bo a vSUi^'^ostion hki^ this." (uMior- 
ally. howt^vor, .Indt^o Smith Mas rathor ontiMtainoil 
tlian paintully atVoctod, by thi^ strui^^k^s and oi>ntor- 
lions of political partios. ami his oiMunuMits. whothor 
in oonvorsation or in ^^ri^in^, wiMi^ littlo nuu(^ than a 
spooios ol' amiisonu nt. I'or (^\ampk\ — 

Qnotinii tVom 'l\illo> rand : *' 'Tho art oi jnitlitii^ 
nion in thoir piopor placos is. porhaps. tho tirst in llu^ 
soitMiro ot' covornmont." ho adds. " wt^ ilo not al- 
ways snooood — somotinu^s'wo stMul mon to ooni^r(\ss 
whom wo ovii^ht to send (o iho vStato prison — i>laoo 
mon on tho bonoh whom wo oniihl to sot lo tho bar 
— mon aro srcMi bnsib and laboricnisly thnmpini^ tho 
cushion, who ouiiht to bo thumpiui;- tho anvil." 

Spoaking of (^dii^ida's horst^ boin^ mado a consul. 
Judge Smith add-i . " It was, pi^haps, not an imo\- 



i.nr. <>y .jf;/>r,f: rvinH. .'J07 

\)(:cAt:<\ u\>\><>\ii\.(ttf;iii — tliin^'H nnUiruWy finrjup^fi led u, 
if. - tlif; tirno may r-or/K; w}if;fi wr; Hfiall [)f; liMir; 
«iirf*riHOfl to find :\ fna/i '.K.rJcd {/ovf;rrior wfio f;?irj 
jif;ill)':r rr;-')/! \\<>r wril<;. 'J'hf; })r)r«^;-r:or)Hij| had a. col- 
](;a^Mj(;, aiif] our illiloralo ^<)V(-nK)r may fiavr; a. ^^oofj 
HOcr(;tary, or ... . rnay take lii/n ifj k<:f;j>iri;/. anri 
all /^^O Wf;ll." 

•• Thf; ;y)V^;rnfr)f:nt, \>i()V\(\(:<\ a jJ?jr;f; ^'i, liOUHf;, 
iS/,(:.j for lljf:ir /;y)Vf;r/ior, Mr. I'rincf:. in \V){}7,. afiout, 
two rriilriH from t,}i<; r:<;fjtrf; of I'lyrnoufli.' If, wan 
f>'iIK;(i ' IMain-floalin^^' — a \f:ry Huitafilo namo for 
tjio f/()V(.rn(>r''H roHi(|f;rir'/;. Hr>vv wouhj fjio na/no wuif. 

tlif: (>l;if,'; of r«;sif|';nf.'; of <^ iovornorH ? 

WoiilH Mol. I'i 1' (/ Huit. ifionr; fj<>v(-ni- 

urn l)f;ffr;r, ;ih Kiadifi^ to no f>artif:ijlar infjrjirioH fiow 
far flif;ir 'iflifj;]! or [>riv;jff; fionrjuot f>oro rf;.-/;mfil;jnr:o 
to tlio n;imr; of tlioir f>lacoH of r^Hifloncr; ? 

^- 'i'lif; ifjfof/rity of tliin f]wr;Jlor at l*)airi-(if;alin;.^, 
Wf; arf; foKi, wan [yrovf;rf>i;il. In tliaf. tfir; r,;j ;r; witfi 

, ii'j-.. '. 'f'fjf; (JwoHf:r at iMain-fJoalinf(, ("for f 

lovo to r(;|K;at tlif; u'.\.u\f\.) was also distinrMjinfiofi for 
infJiJKtry, o)if;rt.^y. Hounr] jij(l;un';nt. nnrj \\\'. f;Xf;rfionH 
for a fix<;fJ and <'/>m[>f;t.f;nt ■;^\\\)\)<^x\. of an afJf; and 
If:arnf;fl ministry, frj m?jny jJaeon a dinfjonilion [>rf;- 
vailed, to tic'^lf.cX ili'iH im[K>rtaiit branch of [jijfjic 
inHfrijfJion, or to emjiloy inf:omf>otf;nt U/.iclicrH. 
VVitfi tho (:K<:f:\>\.i<tn, [>f;rliapH, of ififluHfry, fiow will 
tho thref; ^^roat ^^ovornorH, indieate-fl alK^ve, f;r>rnfn'iro 
with their f>rothor of tfie .smaller and rrjore ineonsid- 
erafjle r^omrnunity (Jwellirij_^ at Plain-dealin;/ r llicy 

1 Mortorj'H M^;rriori?il. 



308 LIFF. OF Jimu: S>UTH. 

doubtless LiToaily oxooodod him in tho loiii^th o( their 
niessaizes, the luunber aiul aitloi ot' their protessioiis 
of love tor their dear eonstituents. and in the eiilti- 
vation ot' all the arts deemed neeessary in tliese more 
enliizhtened days, to seeure a reeleetion. Their poor 
simple brother seems to have relieil altoizether on in- 
tegritv and plain-dealini:. anil, strange to relate, was 
more sueeesstul than they. It would be a eurious 
siizht to behold a modern iiovernor, like Trinee. leav- 
ing his aets to sj^eak tor themselves, [^laein^- all his 
dependenee tor the favor oi' his constituents on his 
goodness, on his intOizrity, industry, energy, sound 
judgment, ami unitorm and constant endeavors to 
dirtuse through the community religious and moral 
instruction. I ween many would wonder at the 
siglit, and be ready to cry, qiiis )iorus p;ubvrna- 
tor ! The at'oresaid three governors wouKl natu- 
rally suspect him of a trick." 



(:\\A\''\'\'Ai XI 



1820 — J 820. 



WILLIWJ SMTJ J/ ■ .!()\:ii.SEY 'iO SIA<.AHA MltH. 

smith's i)KATH AIlIA.NA, JfJ.Jl Sif.KNKSB AND 



VViiJ.iAM Smith was. Uirou'^^j lifo. an of>jf;ct. of f;x- 
IrorrKi soliciturirj to liis f'allior. Hr- iiad hnrdly f;rjU;rf;d 
Uio [>rofV;ssiori of law wlif.n, ;jt. tho ago of lwf;fit.y-tvvo, 
liC w;is cljosf;n into l.ljf; J<;;_Mslaturo. whore fic con- 
tiriijcd for tfircc years. From this tirno his thougfjls 
woro given almost exclusively to f>olities. He loved 
exf^iteine-nt : ;jnd the sort of notoriety, tfjat is so 
cheafJy [>ijrcfiased by ready talents and sinning ac- 
comfjlishments. wittiout any great amount of knowl- 
edge, flattered at onee iiis love of ap[)robatJorj and 
his aversion to severe ?jnd long-eontinijf;fi l;jfjf>r. He 
was brought into the society of tfje prominent, young 
men throughout tfie state, and was a great fiivorito 
with them. J>ut while he was congratulating hirn.self 
on fiis success, liis father foresaw that such a life 
must prove fatal to his fiopes of distinction at the 
bar, and finally leave him impoverished in mind and 



310 LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 

estate, lie therefore did not cease to remonstrate 
witii him, and to urge him to lay deep the I'oiiiida- 
tions of knowledge, and form habits of industry ami 
exactness, before he allowed himself to embark on 
the perilous sea of political contention. '• A young 
man," lie said, '' of capabilities and promise is treated 
with attention above his deserts ; he is rewarded 
for what he is to be ; but when from imbecility of 
character, indolence, or dissi[nition, he remains sta- 
tionary, or goes, or seems to go back, he is neglected 
and loft to himself. lie has no longer any flattering 
anticipations of tiie future. All the world see his fu- 
ture course, and already regard him as what he is to be. 
I wisii 1 had tlie power to picture to your imagination 
yourself, after the world have discovered you are 
to be nobody — a weak man who, if he still retain 
the badge of a profession, is now in the rear of all 
his competitors. He never competed, so that every 
fellow stepped before him, at fust treating him with 
a sort of good manners, but soon putting on the su- 
periority of mind over mind, of knowledge over 
ignorance." 

*•' If ambitious, what object greater than to be 
among the eminent at the bar ? " — '" Without a 
profession, what will you be when your patrimony is 
spent ? " — " Importance of acquiring early instruc- 
tion in a profession — for example, law ; time neces- 
sary to master its intricacies." — " Those who begin 
late, never become masters." 

These, and other remarks of a similar kind, I find on 
loose scraps of paper. As some men think aloud m 
broken sentences, so Judge Smith seems to have had 



I.IF1-: OF Ji:t)GE SMITH. 311 

llir; liJihit. of tliinkin;^ with ;i ]>('n, involunlfirily 
writing (Jown what was int<iii(i(;(l lor no ayi- hiit Jjjk, 
and sornetifnfjs not ov(;n for that. 'J'ho followinj^ 
ufjfinished (]raij;4ht carries its own r;X{>larjatJon with 
it. ft hears no date, but must fiavc been written in 
\H2li, or early in \H24. " 1 agree that it is ex- 
tr(;rnely natural ihat you should desire to be at Con- 
cord at this tinje. Jiut I am opf)Osed to tlie gratifi- 
cation of" that very natural desire, because f think 
it will be hurtful to your ad vatjcemefit in life. You 
are now too Uiucfi (.-ngaged in politics, antJ too little 
in your profession, and, if there is no charjge, I fore- 
see that the <;vil rruist increase, and the chance of 
fjcirjg a lawy(;r diminisli. It does not require the 
gift of prof>h(K'y to deterniine what will be the end 
th(;reof. 'J'liese two branches of study, or pursuit, 
cannot both have your supreme regard. V'ou may 
be an active politician and a nominal lawyer. Jiut it 
is as certain as fate, that you will soon cease to be a 
lawyer even in name. To me it is equally certain, 
that on the best calculation you cannot live by pol- 
itics, and the chances are tfiat you do not succeed. 
Yoiir fjrofc'ssion is tfie ordy way in wliich you can 
succeed, and you have yet to learii tfie law fioth as a 
science and an art. I would not magnify the diffi- 
culties to be overcome, but sure 1 am Ih^.-y will 
call for your whole strefjgth, and if you do not very 
soon set about the work, I would advise you to aban- 
don it, and do )ours(.'lf tfie justice at once to avow 
it. You may deceive yourself, but I see jilainly that 
your chances to be respectaf>le in your profession are 
less than they were two years ago ; first, because you 



aro no farthiM- lulvriiuwl in law kninNK\l:;o. I nu\in 
toohnioal law ; and sooonvUy. K^ss uuliiu\l [o lUc 
stiuiv. booaiise nioro onLi'a^vil in politics. It ^ on do 
not lovo tho law at tNNiMitv-tonr. I sih^ no vc\ison lo 
boliovo vou will at tw only-six. oi^lit. or tiiiitN. 'Vhc 
small snni oxponilod on this excursion, ami tho tinio 
spont. aro nollniii^. absohitolv nollnn^ in thouisolvos ; 
but, as resulting tron\ vour inolinaiion anil associa- 
tions aiul habits, thov avo all important. Cannot you 
resist tlie inclination to ilissijKite : Surt^ly this is 
merelv dissipation, ^^"hen is your power ot' ri^sist- 
ance tv> acquire suilicient streniith : \\'ill iiulnli^cMict^ 
ever bei:et selt-ilenial : WIumi \ on set about the 
law. vou must :^rapple with it as a man contiMuline; 
tor lite. Vou are absolutely uulitfi\l tor a ilnll. eol- 
lectini^-, business law\er. Well thcMi : you must bi^ a 
lawver ot' the respectabU^ class or noiu^ at all. This 
visit has a temlencN to locate \ vni amom: tlu^ bustling- 
politicians, and to ti\ } our chaiacter as tar as any 
act. iimocent in iiselt" at tweuty-tour. can ti\ it. I 
do not sav that, this visit over. m>u cannt>t be a law- 
yer, but that without a miracle you will not. This 
visit is a coulinuatiou ot" ^vrol1L:-doin^. It certainly 
is not a step in the wav in which vou must find 
honor an<l competenct\ it" you (^ver lind tluMU. \\ i' 
sometimes in imagination citntiMuplati" Mr. Sullivan 
as leaviui?: the bar — ilo vou mwer ask ^ oursell w ho 
tills the vacancv ? Ho } ou cvim- say. 'is it I : ' 
Sur(^l\ no — but I can tell who will, it w ill not he an 
Exeter man. I own 1 am at a K^ss \o account lor 
your want ot' perstw\Mancc^ in K\i;al study. \)o you 
not lind pleasure in it ? l>e[>enil upon it. it is the 



fJ^^, OF .lt:h(,y. HMfTlf. J3l3 

{iur-.uit. vou rir'; <;ft'/-i;/<:'\ in. :i(\(\<:(\. [j';rh;ipH. to Horr:';- 
l.flIr^^r of ;j. rj;)tijr;j! want, r^f (:n(:ruj of <:\\'.yr.\(;\<.r. 
wfiif;fi. ;j.r)fl whi';fi ;jlor]';. \)r':\<:uyy.. I fiav*; h';':^ witfi 
l>\<:'i~:iir<;. tf)''it. you rouKJ fix your 'iXU-jiUhft ^jri'l -tuHv 
for ri wr;r;k U}'^(A\i<;r, u.fid r<;joic^;dj tfjouj/fi J could not. 
?jf;prov<; of tho f)\>\(:cAH of your jjur-uit. Voii fi'iv<; 
;j j„^oof]. 'Hj ;j/:f:ijr;jtf;; rof<;ntjvo- Ui<Mi<>ry. rjot. a -lov/ 
'i\)\)r(:\n:uh]f)tt, at. any rato a ^^ood. o|f:;jr [;or^/;ption. 
(■/.i\)''i\)\i: f)i' '.if/ynnnw- arid, tfiou^di 1 do not. tfiirjk 
fjuiff; ho vv';ll of your jud:_^rrj';rjt. vf;t. vf;ry <:''i\>'i\>\<: of 
irn[;rovifjr/ it.. V'r>u aro capahio of rn;jkjn^^ a j/ood 
la'»vyf;r. [>';rf)J)[r-i a ;:^ood politici'jn. Vou ar'; tjow. 
trust, rrjf;. <\<:(;<:u\\y furni-hcd irj tfiO orj';. arjd ^juit/; 
raw irj ifio otf)^;r. Ui ;j1I rny f;X\)(:r\<:i\(:':. 1 }javo 
nf:V';r known j;oljl.icH conf<;r kiw knowK;d!_^o or pro- 
fo :'-,ion;jl diHlinction, but. fiavo known law knowlod^/fj 
<-\<:\".i\.(: t.fio [jolitir>-)l man. Tfio road to law i-; not. 
t.hrouf/h [joliticH, hut, a-.ido. afjarf. from it. Jt. t>ak^;H 
away, fjut novor ^dvoH. ^>n t.hr- nubj^^ct. of polit.icH. it 
in matf;rial to Ht^j.t.o-. tliat. tfioy unfit, tfjo rmnd for Hci- 
f;nr:r; of any «ort; ccrt^jinly for tfio H^;Vf;ro H^:icnco of 
law, lo^riC; or mathomaticH. Ah man?j.;_^f;d with uh, 
tfioy whot. jjrjd hri::djt<;n Horrjo of tfjo ffjcultir:-;. \iiV(-r\- 
t.ion, irnaf/ination, knowl^dj/*^; of m^;n and \.\iiiiUH — 
t.fir; talorit of divornifyinr/, d<^;hcr)hinc/; ahu-.inr/ an ad- 
vr;rHary, A.c. (i:*-:., hut urjf;j vorafjU; to a'-:cura'':y of 
tfiinkinj/. t^j.lkin.;/, wnUn^/, npoakin;:;. Irj our .st.;it,c 
KfjuahhlcH. a lit.tlo knowl^fjr/o. Iooho arid u/ak-jhI. ]h 
hf;ttor t.harj a ^^roat df;al of HOtirjd and (jnrficX krjow- 
\(jh^(: and information." 

frj t.ho Hurnmor of ]'^/M. William's \)rf)-,\)(;cX:i woro 
Hadly ovcrnfiadow^d lfjrou;.dj arj act of mofrierit.ary 
27 



314 LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 

passion, which filled him with grief, and his friends 
with mortification and sorrow. I cannot learn, from 
those who knew him best, that he was ever a man of 
licentious liabits ; but his impulses were strong, his 
powers of resistance weak ; in an evil hour he 
yielded to temptation, and was forced to taste the 
bitter fruits of transgression. He was overpowered 
with shame and contrition. Ilis father uttered no 
word of reproach, but received him as a clhld, and 
endeavored to inspire him with the hope of regain- 
ing what he had lost, by a life of fidelity and active 
virtue. He particularly hoped to bring him back to 
the neglected duties and studies of his profession. 
In a rude fragment which remains of a letter written 
at this time, he says : '• My dear child, — for with all 
your laults you must be dear to me, — it is my duty 
to watch over you, and do all I can to conduct you 
in the path of virtue and honor. You cannot be in- 
ditVerent to me. As a Christian, a father, and a man, 
I must condemn the act which has occasioned your 
present anxiety and trouble. But I see no baseness 
in it. It was the ali'air of passion and sudden temp- 
tation. It betrays neither meanness, malice, delibe- 
rate wickedness, nor dishonor. When you have re- 
pented of it, as I am sure you have, and have re- 
paired the injury as an honorable man ought to do, 
and girded your mind with prudence and resolution 
to meet the consequences, and obviate their evils as 
far as possible, you will then be as you were, and it 

is in this state I would commune with you 

I think that I feel at this moment a thousand times 
more anxiety for your character and success in life, 



JAFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 315 

than I did at your ago for my own. I wish indeed I 
liad folt moro in my own case than I did. My heart 
was in the main ri;^ht, and my views lioncst and hon- 
orable, and 1 had a considerable portion of ambition 
to act well my [)art, and tliat that part should not be a 
mean one ; and, thougli not then vain, 'I had sufhcient 
confidence in myself, that, with unremitting industry 
and af)plication, I coiild be a lawyer, and have rank 
among the best of them. But there never was a mo- 
ment when I thought of success as possible without con- 
stant ap[)lication. If I could now go back to twenty- 
five, the ciiief diflercnce between the course I pur- 
sued and the one I wish you to adopt, would consist 
in the manner in which I would exercise my talents. 
I would be systematic, accurate, more attentive to my 
manners, aim at accuracy and some ornament in 
speaking, writing, and conversing. I would spend 
less time in some branches of learning, and have 
more for others. But to return from this digression, 
the first thing is to form an estimate of your powers 
of mind, your temper, particular disposition." 

Here the sketcli abruptly ends. I do not know 
whether it was ever written out in full, and forwarded 
to William. 

The olTencc committed was one which the com- 
munity are only too ready to overlook in a man. 
To William's friends and to himself it was the source 
of bitter anguish, — more especially to his sister, to 
whom he was tenderly attached, and who, with all a 
sister's pride, had rejoiced in her brother's accomplish- 
ments and success. His position in society was not 
permanently changed, and his father's apprehension 



316 LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 

was, that the impression might pass by without the 
effect which it ought to have in turning his attention 
more entirely to his profession. It was in the fall of 
1825, that I, then a boy in the academy, first became 
acquainted with William Smith. He was interested 
in the students, attended the meetings of their so- 
ciety, and took a part in their debates, where he con- 
tributed not a little to quicken their literary enthu- 
siasm. His manners among us were exceedingly 
attractive, his advice always judicious, and his influ- 
ence good. He felt for and encouraged those who 
were struggling with adverse circumstances. I re- 
member one of our number, a destitute young man 
from the country, who was prostrated by a long and 
dangerous illness. William watched with him, saw 
that he had whatever might contribute to his comfort, 
and did not forget him when the delirium and weak- 
ness of disease were over. There was a gentleness 
in his motions, a softness in the tones of his voice, 
which, coming as they did from a kind heart, made 
his attentions particularly grateful in a sick room. 
He was of a generous, confiding nature, willing to 
give up what was for liis own ease, and gaining the 
confidence of those younger than himself, by letting 
them freely into his own feelings and plans. And 
their confidence was not abused ; for, however he 
may have fallen short of what he sought, he aimed at 
what was high, and made them the sharers of his 
hopes, not his partners in failure and defeat. I have 
never known a man whose conversation was more 
fastidiously pure, or who was more open to the finer 
and better impulses of humanity. But, like Burns 



LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 317 

and a thousand others of the same temperament, he 
was weak, and therefore his Hfe presented a series of 
magnificent aspirations and mortifying disappoint- 
ments ; — of plans entered upon with an enthusiasm 
which could not be sustained, and ending only in 
small and sad results. 

This weakness his father held up to him with all 
the mournful consequences that must ensue. " It is 
the common error of young men to aspire to be dis- 
tinguished, though they will not use the means ; to 
be impatient to be everything at once. They hate 
the thorny road. Ignorance will do well enough 
for a boy from eighteen to twenty-five, rosy, healthy, 
animated, lively, all bagatelle ; but it is most unbe- 
coming in the middle of life, especially when the 
owner of it happens by mistake to get into office, as 
sometimes happens. It is dreadful in old age ; it 
adds contempt to the feelings of the spectator. He 
is now poor indeed ; all the revelry, gaiety, fun of 
life is gone, and ignorance and hard features, aches, 
pains only remain. In youth all within was spirit, all 
without gaiety. Now, all within and without is a 
dreary blank. Depend upon it, the world will take 
care to shun you. There is nothing in you they can 
desire, and nothing they will desire. You must 
depend on your resources, and having none, must 
mentally go to the poor-house." 

For a time. Judge Smith seems to have hoped that 
the severe shock which his son had sustained, might 
be the means of working a revolution in his charac- 
ter. But habits of persevering industry are not easily 
formed, even by the strongest minds, after so many 
27* 



318 LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 

years of mental dissipation and indulgence ; and 
where there is weakness to begin with, the reforma- 
tion, though not hopeless, is exceedingly difficult. 

It would be wrong to infer, from what has been 
said, that William was an idler ; his time was filled 
up with employment. The extent of his reading 
was immense ; but usually without method, plan, or 
object, and therefore failing to impart wisdom or 
strength. He wrote with facility and with force, 
taking always on moral and political subjects the side 
which he believed most favorable to order, religion,, 
virtue, and all the best interests of society. A fourth 
of July oration, an address before the Rockingham 
Agricultural Society, an essay on raising by law the 
means of supporting the ministry, remarks on the 
assassination of Julius Coesar, with numerous news- 
paper articles, some of which were extensively copied 
through the United States, are among the writings 
which bear honorable testimony to his mind and 
heart. He began a history of Exeter, and made 
extensive and laborious researches among original 
documents. He was engaged on this his favorite 
work, when interrupted by sickness, and, till within 
a few weeks of his death, he cherished the hope of 
resuming and completing it. 

William's most serious failing was an utter reck- 
lessness about money. It appears as if he had and 
eould have no idea of its use or value. His expenses 
in college were unreasonably large. After he was 
admitted to the bar, though he received liberally from 
his fatlier, he was constantly embarrassed with debt. 
Nor did he learn from experience ; but the more he 



LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 319 

suffered, the more prodigal were his habits. This 
touched his father in a tender point ; for if there was 
anything on which he prided himself, it was a severe 
justice and promptness in all his pecuniary engage- 
ments. Nothing could be more annoying than the 
applications that were constantly coming to him for the 
payment of his son's debts. But as the difficulty went 
on increasing, he saw that the only way of stopping it 
was, to let him suffer the mortifying consequences of 
such conduct. He warned him of the course he should 
pursue, but without effect. Wilham was soon ha- 
rassed and beset with creditors. His situation preyed 
upon his spirits, haunted his dreams ; yet he went 
on in the same thoughtless expenditures, suffering, 
repenting, but not reforming. As must always be 
the case with those who allow themselves to continue 
thus unfaithful to their pecuniary engagements, he 
was not only harassed and tormented, but, without 
intending it, guilty of injustice towards others. In 
one or two instances, he applied to his own use the 
money which he had received, as an attorney, for his 
client ; and once he spent the money which he had re- 
ceived in trust as a guardian. The sums were small, 
and, of course, he expected and intended to replace 
them in season ; but he had not the power. Some 
hint of these difficulties came to his father, and it 
was the most cutting thing that he had been called 
to endure. For a man with his ideas of professional 
honor to see not only the honest tradesman deprived 
of his due, but the orphan kept, even for a few weeks, 
out of her inheritance by the guardian whom she 
had chosen to protect her, and that guardian a son of 



3:20 LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 

his, was more than even his philosophy could bear 
with patience. In a letter to his daughter he says, 
" Oh that W. had any — the smallest firmness of 
mind ; that he could do and forbear according to the 
dictates of his judgment. I am sure I do not have 
credit for the tithe of that delicacy and tenderness I 
really possess. When I saw Mr. Dow, Monday even- 
ing, alone, I could not find it in my heart, for fear of the 
answer, to ask him if W.'s saying to his wards about 
the loan of their money to him, were true. And he 
could, young, do what I, hackneyed and hardened 
in the ways of the world, could not even talk about. 
Why should there be any doubt ? It is not much 
worse to defraud a ward, a tender, confiding ward, 
than a client, of his money — the word defraud is a 
hard one, let it be ' work them out of it.' 

" I fear I shall not, unless for special cause, be 
able to see you this week, or till Sunday. Though 
I do not pray publicly as I ought, yet in heart I sin- 
cerely pray that you may be enabled to do all your 
duty on this occasion, though much at my expense. 
I cannot but hope, (perhaps the word is a little too 
strong,) that with the return of bodily strength, W. 
may acquire new vigor of resolution, new mental 
firmness. Without some such hope the heart would 
break. It gives me some relief to commune thus 
with you. God bless you, my dear child and friend." 

I find detached and broken sentences, written on 
scraps of paper, sometimes in the midst of other 
things, intended probably for no one to see, which 
show how keenly he suffered. " To be a father, for 
all purposes of pain, anxiety, providing, disgrace, &c. 



LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 321 

but not for filial care, soothing, honor, comfort." 
" To avoid acts of folly and imprudence, it is neces- 
sary to taste the punishment that follows them." 
'' What a pity the boy could not foresee this to save 
the man ! A litde diligence then would have en- 
sured success." " Not strong passions, but remark- 
ably w^eak powers of resistance — no rudder — light 
wind carries him whithersoever it will." '^ Some- 
thing or nothing — must be total, radical change — 
present course ends in 0." '' You may, if you please, 
sneak through life very much like nine-tenths of your 
fellow-men, and the scorn of the remaining one tenth, 
the world certainly none the better for you, and you 
none the better for existence. What if one cabbage- 
plant the less ? " " Here lies a man who lived in vain, 
the world none the better for him, he the worse for 
the world." " If our young men are ruined because 
born to expectations, the error is full of disgrace to 
them." " You will not study the law, therefore can 
never be a lawyer. You will not pretend to have 
studied political economy, the science of politics, 
government, legislation, finance, taxation, revenue, 
the financial system of the United States." 

'' ' I grieve to say his conduct has been such as 
not to be justified even by his father.' And will a 
father be easier satisfied than a stranger ? Harder 
to justify to a father, says J. S." Those who have 
read the preceding pages will not question the truth 
of this, and it should lead us to receive, not without 
some abatement, the estimate he has given us of his 
son. For he compared him, not with other young 
men, nor with what is usually attained, but with the 



322 LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 

high standard which lie had set up for him, and which 
he knew that his talents rightly employed would en- 
able him to reach. He did not make the allowance 
that should be always made, and which no one was 
more ready to make in other cases than he, for 
youthful inexperience and indiscretion, and has there- 
fore sometimes applied to acts arising from thought- 
lessness, epithets which should be applied only to 
wilful and deliberate dishonesty. 

But however severely he may have been tried at 
times, the general cheerfulness of Judge Smith's 
temper was unbroken, and his sources of enjoyment 
rich and various. In the summer of 1825, he went 
with his daughter to Niagara, Montreal, and Quebec. 
She had never journeyed before, and her father had 
never, I believe, been west of Albany. Everything 
was new to them, and they went on exploring and 
enjoying, with an almost childish zest and freshness 
of interest. The light of their own joyous spirits 
was thrown over whatever they met, and the smallest 
incidents not only amused them at the time, but were 
hoarded up to enliven their more solitary hours. For 
instance, '' I ought," says Judge Smith, in his jour- 
nal,^ " to have mentioned a civility we experienced 
at Auburn, which gratified us at the time, and ever 
since in the recollection. I directed the coachman 
to stop on a rising ground, just above the village, 
that we might have a full view of it and the prison. 
It was just opposite the seat of a gentleman. A.'s 

' This, and other facts relating to the journey, are extracted from a 
journal written out hy Judge Smith, mostly after his return home, from 
letters and his own recollections. 



LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 323 

eyes were soon attracted to his beautiful garden, and 
she exclaimed, ^ see the beautiful cherries.' The 
gentleman, who was walking in his garden unseen 
by us, called our coachman to him. He soon re- 
turned with three or four branches loaded with the 
finest cherries. We bowed our acknowledgments 
and went on our way, eating and rejoicing. How 
many similar acts of attention we and our good coun- 
trymen omit, from a foolish mauvaise honte. We 
determined thenceforth to stop every passenger, and 
give him cherries in the season of them." 

Judge Smith had a great taste for geography, and 
especially for tracing out the exact localities which 
had been distinguished for any remarkable actions or 
events. Perhaps no spot awakened so many or such 
various emotions as the battle-ground, which he had 
not visited since he was there as a boy, bearing arms 
in the service of his country. He says : " We 
stopped to dine at Saratoga, the very spot where 
Burgoyne surrendered to Gates. This circumstance 
added something to the enjoyment of a good dinner. 
In the afternoon we passed, at the foot of Bemis's 
heights, the battle-grounds of the 19th of Septem- 
ber and 7th of October. At Stillwater, lower down, 
I began to recognize the ground I had been over 
when a boy, forty-eight years ago, and I cannot 
describe the sensations. Whatever of good or evil 
fortune I had experienced in the intervening years, 
was present to my imagination. I will not say that 
the retrospection was all delightful ; but I can truly 
say the pleasant greatly predominated." 

Twelve or fifteen years before, Judge Smith had 



324 LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 



been delighted with Bishop Cheverus, when he heard 
him preach to his httle flock in a small church in 
Maine, and on meeting him afterwards, was pleased 
with him even more in his private than in his public 
ministration. But he was not so favorably impressed 
with the Roman Catholic ceremonies at IMontreal. 
" We were," he says, " particularly in luck, in being 
in at the death of one of the oldest of the clergy, as 
it gave us an opportunity of witnessing the cere- 
mony, (I should say ceremonies, for they were many,) 
of a Catholic funeral. It was in the cathedral, and 
took up two or three hours. Our Protestant eyes 
and ears were satisfied long before the close, but the 
crowd did not allow us to retire, till his late rever- 
ence was laid quietly in his grave, in a corner of the 
church. The nuns attended, and the place round 
the altar was filled with priests. The prayers and 
service, being in Latin, seemed prodigiously to 
heighten the devotion of the Canadians near us. The 
heat of the room was considerably augmented, by a 
great number of wax candles set to burning in honor 
of the day. A few devout ladies near us were so 
fortunate as to obtain each one, at least a yard in 
height. We had no claims to any such distinction, 
and were obliged to atone for the privation, by stir- 
ring our fans briskly. . . . The Catholics, no doubt, 
are equally sincere with us Protestants. In the arts 
of devotion they seem to excel us. ' God was praised 
by the best organ and choristers.' Lace, brocade, 
and embroidery constituted the robes of the priests. 
The choicest incense from Arabia caused a sweet- 
smelling savor, and there were abundance of candles 



LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 325 

to enlighten. I fear we must allow that our devotion 
is less fervent than theirs. Is reason an enemy to 
devotion, or merely to the semblance of it ? We 
of the sect of rational Christians, are charged by our 
orthodox brethren with wanting piety. I hope the 
diflerence, if there be any, is only in appearance. 
Why should reason, in its largest measure, be un- 
favorable to true piety ? It does not become us to 
say which, the rational, or the ignorant enthusiast, 
renders the most acceptable homage to the God of 
reason, but sure I am no man could sit three hours, 
as I have done, in the Catholic church of Montreal, 
where everything was addressed to the bodily eyes 
and ears, and go away without the most sincere con- 
tempt for the solemn mummery. I am certainly no 
enemy to a liberal support to the teachers of religion 
who are calculated to do so much good in society, 
but here the clergy abound in wealth ; it is the flock 
who are poor." 

The Catholic was not the only kind of religious 
service that failed to edify the travellers. " At Sara- 
toga we attended divine worship, and heard * * * *= 
preach himself above an hour, much to his own satis- 
faction." 

But the interesting people they met during their 
journey, were what contributed most to their enjoy- 
ment, and in this respect they were particularly for- 
tunate. " On leaving Boston," Judge Smith says, 
" we had a very pleasant ride, though it rained occa- 
sionally. The pleasure arose from meeting in the 
stage * * * * * and * * * * ^ the former espe- 



326 LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 

cially, a charming young married man,' has travelled, 
is literary, communicative, and well-bred." At 
Northampton, he " was (not unexpectedly) delight- 
ed with Judge Howe." On going from Northampton, 
they " had an accession to their company, of a young 
gentleman by the name of SneHing." He proved a 
useful travelling companion, possessed a good share 
of information, and certainly had no disposition to 
hoard. 1 believe he was particularly pleased with 
us, which did not serve to lessen him in our esti- 
mation." 

'' We reached Caldwell, at the south end of the 
lake (George), before sunset, and found an excellent 
house, Mr. Baird's. A. with several of the company 
took advantage of a fine evening, to visit the ruins 
of Fort William Henry, &c. I remained with the 
landlord, who was as much to my taste as Squire 
Weston's landlord at the Hercules Pillars, who had 
all the news of the town, and could tell how affairs 
went, knowing a great deal, since the horses of 
many of the quality stood at his house. He asked 
me, * if I knew Mr. Emmett, the great lawyer of New 
York ? ' I answered I had never seen him, but 
intended to obtain an introduction when I reached 
the city. He replied, ' you have seen and supped 
with him this evening. Mr. E. is on his way, with 



1 The accomplished author of " the Conquest of Mexico." Miss 
Smith, in a letter to her mother, says, " Father and Mr. P. kept up a 
constant interchange of wit and humor. It was the most entertaining 
ride we ever took." 

2 Author of " Tales of the North- West," a young man whose brilliant 
promise contrasted painfully with his after-life. 



LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 327 

his wife, to visit a daughter near Ogdensburg.' I 
told him ' he must be mistaken ; that I was sure, if 
there had been any great lawyer and orator at the 
table, and especially if an Irishman, I should have 
taken some note of him.' In a few minutes an 
elderly gentleman, in a pretty ordinary travelling 
dress and with nothing striking in his appearance, 
and whom I recollected having seen at the table, 
took his chair in the piazza, to enjoy the delightful 
evening near us. Mr. B. gave me a look as much as 
to say, ' this is the man.' I immediately began a 
conversation with him, and was soon satisfied that 
dress ' does not make the man, and want of it the 
fellow.' I took care to lead him to topics I kn^w 
would excite him. His countenance lighted up, and 
he was quite lively and eloquent. In about half an 
hour he retired to give some orders. On his return, 
I told him I wished to introduce a person to his ac- 
quaintance, of whom he had never heard, and never 
would again. On announcing my name, he imme- 
diately and cordially took me by the hand, pretended 
he had heard of me, and wished to know me. He 
spoke of General Haines, and young Mr. Walker, 
one or both had studied with him. I made the 
proper acknowledgments, and we fell into the pleas- 
antest conversation imaginable about men and things, 
the Irish and New York bars. South Carolina, United 
States, &c. I was sorry that our arrangements de- 
prived me of his company. The next day he was to 
remain at Baird's, and we to start for Albany. Judge 
Spencer related to me the anecdote of Mr. Pinck- 
ney's attack on him, in the supreme court of the 



328 LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 

United States. They were on opposite sides in an 
important cause, and one which Pinckney liad much 
at heart, and was desirous of winning by fair or 
unfair means. In the course of his argument, he 
travelled out of the cause to make observations, per- 
sonal and extremely olfensive on Mr. E. with a 
view, probably, of irritating and weakening his reply. 
Mr. E. sat quiet and endured it all. It seemed 
to have sharpened his intellect, without having irri- 
tated his temper. When the argument was through, 
he said, ^ perhaps he ought to notice the remarks of 
the opposite counsel, but this was a species of war- 
fare in which he had the good fortune to have little 
experience, and one in which he never dealt. He 
was willing his learned opponent should have all the 
advantage he promised himself from the display of 
his talents in this way. Wiien he came to this 
country he was a stranger, and was happy to say that 
from the bar generally and the court universally, he 
experienced nothing but politeness, and even kind- 
ness. He believed the court would do him the 
justice to say, he had said or done nothing in this 
cause, to merit a different treatment. He had al- 
ways been accustomed to admire, and even reverence 
the learning and eloquence of Mr. Pinckney, and he 
was the last man from whom he should have expected 
personal observations of the sort the court had just 
witnessed. He had been in early life taught by the 
highest authority, not to return railing fof railing. 
He would only say, that he had been informed that 
the learned gentleman had filled the highest otKce 
his country could bestow at the court of St. James. 



LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 329 

lie was very sure lie had not learned his breeding in 
that school.' ' The cotirt, bar, and audience were 
delij^hted. Mr. Pinckney was apt to be occasionally 
a little overbearing." 

On their way home in the stearn-boat from New 
York to New Ilaven, Jud<^e Smith was so fortunate 
as to fmd Mr. Hofl'man, of 15altimore. " Here again 
the introduction was out of the common way. A., 
in passing the baggage-room, saw the name on a 
trunk, and informed me of the circumstance. We 
immediately set about examining the persons, coun- 
tenances, &.C. of the passengers, and happened to fix 
on the right man. When shortly after, he took a 
seat near me on the deck, I observed that, having 
reason to believe Mr. Ilolfman of Baltimore was on 
board, I had fixed on him as the man. He bowed 
assent, and said it would gratify him to know who 
it was that did him the honor to notice his person. 
This seemed too reasonable to be denied. We soon 
became acfjuainted, and spent the greater part of the 
time in conversation together. He is remarkably 



' Mr. Pinckney afterwards made the most ample and generous ac- 
knowledgment. "The manner," he said, "in which he (Mr. Em- 
mett) replied, reproaclics me by its forbearance and urbanity, and could 
not fail to hasten the repentance, which reflection alone would have pro- 
duced, and which I am glad to have so public an occasion of avowing. 
I offer him a gratuitous and cheerful atonement — cheerful, because it 
puts me to rights with myself, and because it is tendered not to igno- 
rance and presumption, but to the highest worth in intellect and morals, 
enhanced by such eloquence as few may hope to equal — to an inter- 
esting stranger, whom adversity has tried, and affliction struck severely 
to the heart — to an exile, whom any country mit,'ht be i)roud to receive, 
and every man of a generous temper would be ashamed to ofli^nd." — 
WhecUon's Life of Pinckney, p. 500. 
28* 



330 LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 

well-informed, and even learned for a young man. 
He made me better acquainted with Pinckney than I 
was before. He knew Harper well. We had enough 
to talk about in the Maryland bar, the supreme court 
of the United States, and the most modern books of 
law. He had read Dane's Digest, and gives a very 
bad account of it. He thinks it faulty in arrange- 
ment, in matter, language and manner." ^ 

But nothing that occurred during the journey gave 
Judge Smith so much pleasure at the time, or so 
much satisfaction afterwards, as the acquaintance he 
formed with Chancellor Kent, for whom, as a lawyer 
and a man, he had entertained the most profound 
respect. Their meeting was on this wise, as de- 
scribed in Judge Smith's journal. " We reached 
Schenectady about seven, there to take the canal- 
boat. When we took our seats at the supper-table, 
we found on the opposite side, a gentleman and two 
very young ladies. His person indicated more years, 
but his manners put him on a par with the ladies. 
A gentleman on the same side with us, accosted him 
as Mr. Kent ; surely it was not the great Chancellor 
Kent ; he was not old, but too old for that gentle- 
man's son. It might be a brother, at any rate, he 
was a frisky chap, much sail and little ballast. The 
gentleman and his ladies left the table, as we did, 
soon after, and A. whispered me ' that was Chancel- 
lor Kent, you may be sure.' I stoutly denied it, and 
should never have been convinced, had not the same 
figure, with his two ladies, popped again upon us in 

1 In this opinion Judge Smith entirely concurred. 



LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 331 

the entry, and A. introduced me as Judge Smith. 
He seemed almost as incredulous on the score of my 
personal identity as I was of his, (not I presume from 
the same cause.) We both yielded at last, and he 
introduced his daughter and his niece. With one 
consent we all began to lament that our engagements 
must instantly separate us, though both bound to the 
same place, Utica. 

" We reached Utica about sunset, had our baggage 
sent to Shepherd's inn, a very good one, and had no 
sooner sat down than we were called on by Chancel- 
lor Kent and Judge Piatt. We had proposed spend- 
ing the next day at Utica, and Judge Piatt urged us 
to spend it at his house with the chancellor and his 
family. This was too much in unison with our wishes 

to be declined We dined at four o'clock, 

and spent our time very agreeably. The Kents and 
we at nine went on board the canal-boat, and the 
next night at midnight, parted at Weed's Bason, they 
proceeding direct for Buffalo, and we for Oswego. 
Nothing but the absolute necessity of visiting our re- 
lations on the Susquehanna could have separated us ; 
we were all acquainted at once, and 1 am sure strongly 
attached on all sides. The ladies preferred quitting 
the boat with us, and taking a carriage for Auburn. 
Here we saw the chancellor in his true character of 
simplicity and the most kindly affections ; his judg- 
ment led him one way, and their inclination another. 
His desire to oblige them held him long in suspense. 
It was clear we must part soon, and I could not but 
join him in the argument. The ladies at last ac- 
quiesced, and we parted to meet no more tiU our 
arrival at New York." 



3S2 LIFE OF JUDGE S3I1TH. 

[At New Yorkj several weeks afterwards :] " I 
called on the chancellor, and spent the forenoon with 
him in his library. He did the talking of course, and 
I played the game of listening. Some of my friends, 
to whom I have mentioned it, have not hesitated to 
say that I played badly for want of practice.^ The 
ladies insisted that Ariana should make her home 
with them, which was quite agreeable to her. I gave 
them much the greater part of my company, and 
never spent two days more pleasantly or profitably." 

" July 28, we took the stage for Exeter, and were 
so happy as to find our friends very well, and not 
expecting us. It was one day sooner than the time 
we had prescribed for ourselves at setting out, eight 
weeks. We were happy to find ourselves once more 
at home, and did not a little applaud our resolution 
in having ventured on so long a journey, now suc- 
cessfully brought to a close, a thing that will give us 
pleasure as long as we live. We had travelled 
twenty-three or twenty-four hundred miles, and had 
seen all the most interesting places on our route, em- 
bracing the northern section of the United States and 
the adjoining country. We set out with the determi- 
nation of being pleased, and were of course not dis- 
appointed. It is no doubt true that those who set 
out on their travels with the determination to find 
fault, may safely count on success. We were uni- 



^ Judge Smith, many years before, spending the night in company 
with Chief Justice Parsons and other lawyers, at a public house, was 
late in making his appearance in the morning, and inquiry being made 
what could have become of him, " Oh," said Judge Parsons, " he is iu 
bed resting that 'tongue of his." 



LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 333 

formly treated with politeness, and in many cases 
experienced the most dehcate and friendly attentions. 
We made no claims, set up no pretensions, and I be- 
lieve uniformly experienced an increase of attentions 
in the various companies into v^^hich we were thrown, 
as the time of our sojourning together drew to a close ; 
so that modesty as well as honesty is the best policy 
in a traveller, and I would heartily recommend it to 
all my friends on their travels. I incline to think the 
general practice is the other way, and that modest, 
unpretending people at home frequently set up claims 
and make extravagant demands abroad, as tending 
to beget an idea of their great consequence. 

" We were by no means sparing of ourselves when 
anything was to be done or seen. At the same time 
we were never in a hurry, made no point of being at 
a particular place at any particular time, or of travel- 
ling in one mode rather than another. We used 
steam-boats, canal-boats, stages, and hired private 
carriages, as was most expedient at the time. When 
the labors of one day fatigued us, we took care to 
rest the next. I experienced no inconvenience from 
the indulgence of my natural disposition to enter 
freely into conversation with all persons and on all 
subjects. Amusement, and, what is more impor- 
tant, information and increase of knowledge, is to 
be derived from the conversation of every individual 
whatever, with whom one may be thrown into a natu- 
ral train of communication. For ourselves, we can 
say, that we never found ourselves in company with 
the stupidest of all possible companions in a stage- 
coach, without finding that, in the course of our con- 
versation with him, we had some ideas suggested to 



334 LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 

US, either grave or guy, or some information commu- 
nicated in the course of our journey, which we should 
have regretted not to have learned, and which we 
should be sorry to have immediately forgotten. 

'' It was not uncommon to tind in these casual con- 
versations, that there was some person, sometimes 
many, with whom we were both acquainted. This 
created something of a tie, aiul prevented us from 
feeling towards each other as perfect strangers. It 
was our uniform practice to sit down at every meal at 
the ordinary. We saw all the company. In this 
way we made many agreeable actiuaintances, useful 
to us on our journey. And I would recommend to 
tiavellers to go in very small parties, and to associate 
as little as possible with each other. These large 
parties are the dullest things imaginable. I can even 

imagine anil , with their 

sprightly wives and , at the end of tlu'ce 

days' travelling together in the same carriage, and 
keeping by themselves at the public houses, — dull 
enough, in all conscience, to satisfy the bitterest 
enemy of gaiety and bagatelle. 

'' I cannot conclude this conclusion to our excur- 
sion, without dissuading invalids from undertaking so 
long a journey. They are in much greater ilanger of 
losing the little health they may happen to have, than 
of acquiring any fresh stock. Variety of company, 
novel and striking scenery, the picturesque, the sub- 
lime, or the beautiful, will add nothing to the enjoy- 
ment or pleasure of the real invalid. This kind of 
misery, that of ill health, languor ami pain, does not 
love company, and company does not love it." 

The two years after this journey were marked in 



LIFE OF JUDfiE SMITH. 335 

Judge Smith's family hy no importiinl events, l)ut 
wore yefirs of (juiot, domestic enjoyment. Mrs. 
Smitfi's liedtfi, wliieti liad been slowly declining for 
a long time, was now such that she seldom lr;ft the 
house, excef)t during the mildest of the summer 
weather, to observe in their progress tlie little im- 
provements in gardening, which had furnished so 
many hours of refined and plf;asant occupntion. She 
was in that delicate condition, wfiich leaves one's 
friends never entirely free from solicitude, and which 
often does so much to soften the fnrnily intercourse, 
and to cherish a tender, watchful, confiding affection. 
No daughter could be more devoted than Ariana 
during tliis time to fier mother. She was almost al- 
ways at home, to free her from every care, and to do 
whatever could be done to alleviate her sufferings, 
which were mostly those that spring from weakness, 
and, above all, to soothe and cheer fier mind. These 
attentions vvere not undervalued, but the affections of 
the wife and mother increased as she drew near her 
end. In the last letter she wrote, which was to her 
husband and daughter while they were on their tour 
to Niagara, she says, " I wish you could see your 
garden this evening — it is delightful ; but I cannot 
help feeling that the divinities of the place are away, 
far, too far for comfort. Oh ! my dear Imsband, do 
not let me see in your letters tliat you do not enjoy 
yourselves, for never did any one make such sacrifice 
as I have done. It seems to me I should like even to 
hear you talk to the cats in your loudest tones." And 
there was something very beautiful and touching in 
William's attentions to her, who, in all his difficulties 



336 LIFE OF .iro(;F. sMrru. 

and oiTors, had novor, for a inoinont, pcrinillod tho 
tondornoss o( llio inothor to hv lost in [hv st^vcMily ol 
tho judi^o or toachor. Slio couliiuunl slowly lailiiii; 
till tho morniiiiA of tho li)th of Juno, 1S'J"J. whon sho 
quiotly foil asloop. 'J'ho proi;ross of disoaso had hoon 
so constant, hor withdrawal from litb so j^radnal, and 
so lonj; lookod for, and doath was so plaiidy a wol- 
conio i;uost, that it oanio i^ontly as a sunnnor's cloud, 
and hor friends could hardly mourn their loss with- 
out impioty to hor. 

The autunui after hor tloath, William, who, till 
then, had lived inulor his father's voo\\ ronunod to 
Portsmouth, and opcMiod an ollioo tluMO. 'VUc uv\{ 
spring he was attaeked by a violent lung lever, 
which, at'tor contimiing some weeks, left him with a 
heavy oough, exhausting night sweats, and some of 
tho surest indications of e(^nsumj>tion. As soon as 
lie was able to bear the journey he was taken luinu\ 
where his sister, wlu> had been wiljj him during the 
fever, continued still to perform the duties of a most 
faithful, tender, and devoted muse. 

Just at this time the Ivvotor bank, of which .ludge 
Smith had boon tho president from its connnonco- 
niont, was broken open, and nearly thirty thousand 
dollars stolen from it. Here was a now iield of 
action, and, in the ca}\acity of thiet-catcher, he was 
absent from homo several w'ooks. Ho never, per- 
haps, displayed more adroitness than in this expe- 
dition. The robbers wore cunning and cx|>orionced 
men, shrewd and reckless, with no fear of tho state- 
prison, but ]>erfectly willing to spend a few years 
there, if, at the expiration o( the tt^ni, they could bi^ 



LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 337 

left in possession of their buiied treasures. Tlicy 
had all been convicts before, and their leader, Mal- 
bone Briggs, thoui^h, in the eye of the law, only an 
accessary in the case, had been three times in the 
state-prison, and of his seven sons, six were said to 
have been graduated at the same school. Judge 
Smith had no great difficulty in getting such evi- 
dence, as to satisfy himself that they would be con- 
victed, but how to get back the money was the hard 
question. For this purpose he went several times to 
New York, visited Briggs's house during his absence, 
where he had several confidential interviews with 
Mrs. B., who seemed not unwilling to be freed for a 
short time from the severe dominion of lier master. 
He had frequent conversations with the prisoners, 
and at last, making no other promise than that their 
confessions should not be used in evidence against 
them, he succeeded in getting their secret, and se- 
curing to the bank nearly all that had been lost. 

A fow extracts from letters written to his daughter, 
during this expedition, are introduced here, princi- 
pally for the purpose of showing how fondly his 
mind turned always towards her. Indeed, he said 
that he found himself constantly using expressions, 
which he had used thirty years before in correspond- 
ing with her mother. " My dear Ariana : your letter 
of Sunday evening was very, very good and kind, 
and cheered me mightily. I am glad such senti- 
ments are in you, and that they came out. God 
bless you I am glad this will reach you Sat- 
urday. It will come fresh from your best friend, 
and you will readily imagine, better than he can ex- 



338 LIFE OF JUDCF SMITH. 

press, the love he bears you, and always has and 
ever will." July 5. In New York. " 1 shall see 
your friends, the Smiths and Kents, I hope ; but a 
man pursuing thieves feels so like a catchpole, that 
he has little pleasure in seeing friends or joining in 
amusements. But I shall tak' a hike o' them. I 
hope you have Mr. Brown with you, and that your 
time will pass not un})leasantly. Young people 
should do all the travelling. I have less and less 
enjoyment in it every day, and experience a loneli- 
ness I never felt before. The world and I form two 
great divisions, more unequal in number than your 
friend's two classes — saints and sinners." 

July 28. " How good and happy a thing it is that 
I have no anxiety about aiUiirs at home. When 
anything very pleasant occurs here I wish for you, 
but the general balance is the other way ; the sufler- 
ing exceeds the pleasure, and therefore I am glad 
you are safe, and I hope happy, superintending the 
afiairs of your small family. I am in a crowd all 
the time, and long for your shady, cool walks, books 
and airy rooms. . . . Nothing can be more gloomy 
and solitary than my life here. . . . Business is cer- 
tainly unsocial, and New York a desert to a New 
Hampshire man, trying to lay his hands on Exeter 
bank bills. Surely our Exeter people are the stupid- 
est of the stupid. . . . But all this only proves my 
temper is a little ruffled ; but I shall soon recover, 
and be in charity with all men. It rains every day 
here. . . . Adieu, my dearest Ariana. Be happy ; 
you must be so, for you are good, and not in pursuit 
of thieves and Exeter bank bills. So prays J. S." 



LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 3;j9 

Tlirougli llic autumn of 1828, William was very 
fcclilc, never leaving the house, and spending tlie 
greater part of his time in his ciiamber. Ariana's 
attention was divided between her father and brother, 
the day being usually passed in tlie sick room, and 
the e veiling in ln^r ratli(;r's study. A newly married 
cou[jle could hardly be more assiduous ifj their atten- 
tions to each other, or take more delight [n each 
other's soci(;ty. Works of hclion, history and phi- 
losophy, contributed each a share to their instruction 
and enjoyrnent. Reading afforded matter for con- 
versation, and conversation gave new life and zest to 
reading. Sometimes, though rarely, a game of piquet 
was allowed to take the [>lace of books, and mimic 
kings, queens and knaves usurped the stations and 
played the parts of their more important prototypes, 
who fill the [jages of liistory and romance. The 
memory of tlie friend who had so recently gone from 
among them was gratefully cherished, and threw a 
softening influence over their lives. No subject was 
so frequently or so warmly dwelt upon in their even- 
ing intercourse as the devotedness of her former days, 
and the patience and resignation of her last hours. 
It seemed almost as if she were still one of the com- 
pany. 

In this manner the autumn passed. There was 
little hope of William's recovery, but nothing was 
omitted by his father or sister that might contribute 
either to his present comfort or future amendment. 
Late in the fall Ariana was seized with a violent cold. 
No serious consec|uences were apprehended, and it 
was allowed to pass like other colds. Her usual du- 



340 LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 

ties and pleasures were not interrupted, and her mind 
lost nothing of its natural quickness and vivacity. 
The whole winter passed away, and still there was 
no improvement. The true character of the disease 
was not suspected. But her father was not alarmed. 
His affections were so concentrated on her, whom he 
had already looked forward to as the last that should 
remain to him of his five children, that it did not oc- 
cur to him that she also might be taken. He quieted 
his own apprehensions, but not the disease, which 
was making slow but fatal inroads on her constitution, 
closing the avenues and exhausting the fountains of 
life. Early in March, as the spring birds first began 
to appear, she withdrew to her chamber, and soon a 
few moments in the day were all that she had strength 
to spend, except upon her bed. The feelings with 
which she was borne along through her sickness, are 
happily expressed in words which I find copied by 
her own hand. " It has often been said that a slow, 
wasting disease of the body, must press heavily upon 
the soul, which sees its departure from the friendly 
world approach step by step, and counts as it were 
the leaves of bloom which drop one after another. 
When, however, no distorting pains interfere, and 
when the departing one does not love too much that 
which is called life, nor hate too much that which 
is called death, it may not be so bad as is imagined. 
If we drink the last flask of a noble wine with a pleas- 
ure which we did not know before, why not also 
these last drops of the earthly being ? In thus glid- 
ing quietly downwards, we meet with few of the cares 
and shocks of this lower world ; we have httle more 



LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 341 

lo do than to pluck its flowers ; a foretaste of the 
disembodied state is breathing around us ; those who 
love us have more thought and more affection for the 
departing one ; and those who do not love us we 
more lightly and easily pardon, regardful of the text, 
* Forgive as we would be forgiven,' as well as mind- 
ful of the slioit time which we have to pilgrimage 
together ; and when a tear flows from the eye, it 
flows almost as visibly as seed pearl into the life of 
paradise. Whoever has experienced such gentle 
suffering will not deny us his assent " 

When the warm weather came, there appeared no 
improvement or rehef, but rather a sinking and wast- 
ing away. Like some young and beautiful plant, 
that droops we know not why, her strength, without 
any adequate cause that her physicians could dis- 
cover, gradually left her, till at length it was found 
that the same disease which had taken the mother, 
and was now taking the brother to his grave, had 
seized also on her. No suspicion of the nature of 
her illness was entertained by her friends till three or 
four weeks before her death. She knew that she 
must die, but expressed no wish to live except for 
her father's sake. There were no professions or part- 
ing words, but just enough to let him know that she 
understood her situation, and was prepared to go in 
peace. 

" It is," said her father, in minutes taken at the 
time, " exceedingly painful to look on a beloved ob- 
ject, of whose life you entirely despair. The occa- 
sional pleasant looks, and smiles, and lively conver- 
sation cause a most melancholy emotion. In this 
29* 



342 LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 

case I am persuaded that the dear sufferer has no 
hopes at such moments more than the beholder. The 
emotion is a mixed one ; you rejoice and grieve — 
hope for an instant springs up — your judgment is 
employed in repressing it. You are reminded pow- 
erfully of the value of what you are just about to lose 
forever. You rejoice at the apparent ease, comfort 
and exemption from suffering, but feel that your joy 
is fated, to last but for a moment, and speedily to be 
succeeded by suffering and death." 

She once said to her father, " How many times have 
I formed schemes of the future, when I was to take 
care of you, nurse you, amuse you ! How many 
thousand little comforts I have planned for you ! " 
But conversations like this were too interesting for 
her. Judge Smith never felt at ease in the sick 
room, even of his daughter. His life had been spent 
amid other scenes. His feelings were kind ; but he 
had not the soft and pliant manners, the calm self- 
possession and repose which are so important to the 
sick. She was unwilling also that he should witness 
her sufferings. WiUiam, whose health had been 
slowly improving, was a more gende and unexciting 
companion, and was more with her. She sank qui- 
etly away, and when she slept, her countenance 
seemed like that of a delicate young girl in some 
pleasant dream. In her wanderings, there was, as 
her father said, no expression of fear or dread, no 
indication of anything disagreeable, but all was peace- 
ful and serene. On Monday, the 15th of June, she 
dictated a few words for her brother to write down, 
that they might go with some small tokens of her love 



LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 343 

to her dearest friends. On Friday, the 19th of June, 
the anniversary of her mother's death, just at sunset, 
she asked to be carried to the window, and looking 
out as she knew for the last time on the earth and 
sky, she was touched and melted by their exceeding 
beauty. " Such softness of coloring," she said, " such 
intermingling of shades, such a variety of green ! " 
But her eyes were soon to open on richer glories than 
God has made to shine from these his lower works. 
The next day, at the same hour, it being towards the 
close of the last day of the week, she was called away 
to spend an eternal Sabbath in a world where pain 
and sickness shall be felt no more. 

It had been one of those lovely, transparent June 
days, when the earth seems in a peculiar manner em- 
braced by the fostering heavens. The air was filled 
with fragrance, and the sun just going down, as the 
physician informed Judge Smith that his daughter 
was dying. He arose, calmly begged the clergyman 
of a neighboring town, with whom he was convers- 
ing, to excuse him, and went to her chamber. No 
word was spoken, and the beautiful composure with 
which she died, her spirit passing away gently as 
the perfume of evening flowers, threw around her 
departure a charm, which took from death all its 
terrors. 

For a moment, as he afterwards said, though no 
one perceived it at the time, her father rebelled 
against the Providence of God — it was but for a 
moment. He talked of her freely, calmly and cheer- 
fully. A stranger would not have known from his 
appearance, that anything unusual had taken place. 



344 LIFE OF jrncE smith. 

Indeed, to some who did not understand his charac- 
ter, this self-possession seemed so unnatural, that 
they feared liis mind was giving way, while by others 
it was attributed to a Stoic insensibility. But he had 
meat to eat, which they knew not of. He asked tiic 
clergyman who attended her funeral to '' give thanks 
that she had been spared so long,'' and as he fol- 
lowed her body to the grave, supporting the son on 
whom he should have leaned, he was enabled to look 
up. and view as but a point the days or years which 
might se[nirate him from her. Indeed it was hardly 
a separation. '* I have known,*' he said, " what 
implicit confidence is — what it is to love another 
better than myself — to see my own good qualities, 
if I may speak of such things, exist in another, in a 
more amiable, graceful, attractive form. In truth, 
dwelling on and contemplating her perfect character, 
constitutes my whole pleasure. She must be happy 
hereafter, who has been so good here, and she will 
live with me as long as I live." 

During her sickness, the thought of her sullering 
tried him severely. *' It is painful,'' he said, " ex- 
ceedingly so, to watch the progress of phthisis in a 
beloved object to the linal close. How gradual ! 
every step marked with additional weakness and 
pain. If the patient has hope of a favorable termi- 
nation, the rational beholders can have none. We 
(the beholders) can endure the pain, (so to speak,) 
when we foresee, or tliink we foresee, a favorable 
issue ; but without that, it seems to us death and 
something more, an uimecessary inlliction, like tor- 
menting a condemned person, and then executing 



LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 345 

liim. But the Christian believes this Judge does not 
willingly inflict pnin. There is some end to be an- 
swered by it, thougfi he knows not what it is. His 
faith and trust in the divine goodness alone can check 
the rising murmurs. J>ut even these cannot ease his 
pain, a father's pain at such a sigiit." 

J3ut soon these painful impressions passed away, 
and his tliou;^hts of her, if sometimes accompanied 
with a feehn<^ of loneliness, were all i>leasant. The 
entries in his common-place book, sometimes quoted 
and sometimes original, are an index to his slate of 
mind. 

" ' It were a- dull house ours, were we to lose 
Anne.' " Alas ! Monday, 7th September, 18-29." 

" A. ]']. S. ' The memory of love is to me far 
more than a living love is to others — there is no 
passion so full of tender, of soft, of hallowing asso- 
ciations, as the love which is stamped by death. 
To lose this would be dreadful.' October 12, 
1829." 

In a letter to his niece,' Mrs. Walker, Judge Smith 
said : " I thank you for naming your daughter for 
my beloved one, now no more. I know well that 
the number is very small who knew the dear de- 
parted as I knew her. Except yourself and a very 
few others, none could know how very dear she was 



1 Sjirah, wifi) of James Walker, of PcterhorDUgli, and daughter of 
Judijc Siiiilli's brother James, a woman greatly lioloved by all who 
knew her. She had assisted in taking care of Ariana, during the latter 
part of her illness, and was with her when she died. There was no one 
out of his immediate family to whom Judge Smith was more tenderly 
attached. She and her uncle died of the same disease, and within a few 
weeks of each other. 



to ino. and how lariiv a inoasuro o\ my happiness 
dojHMulod on her, at'ter tlie doatli ot" her mother. It 
is the reeolleetions ot" her, \^\vhai she ^^as,) tluit now 
ciieer me on my journey, and I hope and beheve 
thev will eontimie to do so to the end. So tar tVoni 
nuirnuirini^ at my irreparable loss, tor sueli it trnly 
was. I am aratetnl to the Giver oi every Liooil and 
perteet ait't, that she was lent me so lon^-. I most 
heartily join with you in the wish, that your's may 
prove as ^reat a blessiui^- to her j^arents. and that she 
may survive you both — a i^reater i;ood I eannot eon- 
eeive ot* — may it be yours.' 

Years after, when his domestie eiieumstanees had 
entirely ehan^ed, he earried with him the same ten- 
der remembranee of his daui^hter. In lSo(>, he says, 
quoting partly tVom •• The Ooeior," a book in whieh 
he greatly delighted: *• Ouief had aeted upon her 
heart like the rod ot' Closes upon the roek in the 
desert — it had opened it. and the well-spring of 
piety gushed out. When the agony of bereavement 
had passed away, the intensity of J. S.'s atVeetiou 
became a source of consolation. A. K. S. became a 
purely ideal object, more, not less dear to his heart.'' 



Tlio idea ol" her litV shall swootly croop 

Into his study ot" imagination, 

And evory lovely orsjan of hor life 

Shall come apparoUod in nioro prooions habit, 

More nxovinir, dolioato, and t'uU ot'lit'o, 

Into the oyo and prospoot ot" the soul, 

Thau when sho lived indeed.' — Sfuikifpciirc. 



It may be that the sketch which I have given of 
Miss Smith is too highly colored, and that her true 



i.fKK OK jr;/>f;;: hmitii. 347 

irri;i|/f; }i;i.h l>f;corrjf;. irj ;i rriOJjHun;, tr.'iriHfi;_Mir<';d in tfio 
rnirid of ono vvlio knew [ir;r only wfjorj a boy ; whoHf^ 
;jr,rjij;jirit;j.rir:o wif.li }n:r \)ft!/u(i, on }i<;r [>?irl, wit.fi kinri 
.'intionH, .'irjrj r;n(]f;fl in kinfjf;r winfiOH ; with wijorn tlif; 
irrjpr^HH of" }if;r inind un<\ pf;rHorj lian ^^onr; u.h ;i f>rigfil 
rfj.'ilily, rifiri wfiorn }if;r df;;i.f,h firHt. t'j.ij;_4it liow Hcronc 
and l>f;;i.uf.irtil a tliin;/ if. may f^o to (Jio. 

A [>k'i,ifj rnarblo }if;afi-Ht.orjo rrjarkn }jr;r fjruvft. Tfic 
jn.Sf:ri[)tion ij[>ori it. was f>n'[>arod f^y fier fat}jf;r ; the 
fiatin \)<An'^ sli^ditly alt';rf;fJ from liisfiop Lowth's ox- 
c|uisit(;ly writtf;n ';j>it;j|i}j uporj liin (Jau^fitcr : 



Ariana rJiz!)f;»;th, 

rl;jut.4il,»rr of 

J'Tcrniali and Klizahcth 

Srnilh. 

fJorri 2'Uh \)<:rj;i ft],f'.r, 17'.)7. 

Di»;«J '/dOth June, 1^29. 

('uTii, v;y]<: ! \iiy<;\i\<> \ir:f:H\.:u\H. \)\<;\:.y\.<:.^ y^ii'Jorf; 
Kt ji)usfju;irn fiat:;; nornin'; frara, vaJ«; ! 
Ariaiia, val',* ! At, v<;ni':t firlioins n-.vitui 
Uuanflo Jl'.Turn tecum, Hirn jn'xJo <\'i'/iiuh. ':fo. 

ThiH world was not ttic world 
for \.\i<:<:. 



ruvrrr.u \ii. 

NX>lllVM SMITH >US SUKNV.SS OOVS 10 MlSStS- 

Sim HIS l^V ^T>«. 

DrRiNt^ tho :iiin\n\or atUM his liauj^htor's iloath. .hul|:x^ 
Smith's tinio. and his thonj^hts. so far ns thov ov>ulil 
Ih^ s}v\n\i fiviH tho ilond. >voix^ ivoiipioii witli his s\>n. 

Ho tv\>k so\oral louriu^vs >\ ith hiin. --- :\iHon>:; \\\cu\. 
ono to \\\c \\ into Hills — oonsiihm^ tht^ nhlost phy- 
sicians, and. nndor thoir aihioo. niakiu.-: thi^ most oi 
tho InvoraMo soason iM* tho \i\h. In SoptcMnhiM. 
Wilhani UM"t hv'>nu\ to try tho otVoot ot" a nnUltM- oh- 
mato. Ho \>ont tirst to Washini^ton. thono<\ by a 
privato oonvoNanoo. aoross to ^^ ln\^hui:. aiul tlown 
tho t^^hio to C^inoinnati. » hoix^ lio s^hmU a nuMUh oi 
nion" Nvith his oousin. .K^sso Smith, a man ilistm- 
iZuishoii as a phvsioian. aiul u ho a tow m\us attor 
loll a viotim to his prot'ossional ;oal ami tidohty. ilin- 
iui: tho provalonoo ot" tho oholora. ViiMh (,'nuMnnati 
iio >>ont iloNvn tlio vMiio and Mississipj^i. to tlu^ plan- 
tation ot" anothoi ovnism. Uoboit Smith." m \vlu>so 

» Tho sou ot" Juvliiv Stmth's l-nulior \\v»l>ort. who du\\ \\\ \:^)>. 



f;irrii)y li'; H\>f;(}\ thr; wjrit<:r, tCA'J^Vm^ f^fTty kinrJn^^W 
nnrj «tt/;rifior» f}i;jt misfit K^jfvr; »/* cfi^;^;r fii<» rriifirj. <,f 
;)IN;vi;it^; fii« \ffn\i\y HniYf-niK/ti. ft, w?m a, Hor^j f.ri;il for him 
fo fi<: (fhhj^fui UyUmvfi fir»rri'-. unn^ir «ach chcmnnUifwjjn, 
Writing from \ow Vork, H<;[;t';rr»f;<;r ^, ho «?iirl : ^* I 
rjiri fi'-mir^; y<;U, rny H<;«r ffitfi^ir, t.h?i.t f folt rnriro «;j/l 
wh' fi f U:i't yoii, tfinn I ov*;r (YttD^'Ai/rf}. My rirJc t^j F. 
w;m ono r>r rnournrul rfj-jMcf-Xutun. If fho objf;r;f.a, of 
rri/ tr?j,vf;l fir*; u<j'j)U)\AsH\\f;(\y wo rnfiy yet F>c vory 
^"f'fy t^»gctfior. Brjt wfiatcvcr the cvont may J^, be 
;j-{'-tijrorl ff^it 1 <1o hoM f(iy9/:]f firrrrly f>'^fiirirj ijfjt/i you, 
fo lonvo notliinf^ unfJono which will have ?j U^tuUincy 
U> improve my hcfilOi anrl my clmrnfAer, If I return 
to you in f^rtter fie^ilth, I am rjeterrninerl that yon 
nfuill firir) me improved in mind." i'fjilodelpfiia, Oc' 
tof>' r 4. '' How f winh that T wa« to «»|:>^;rirj the win- 
Uj wilfi you. ffow HJjd f ff;';! in \p\u,rj'.H w\K',m I 
onr^; bIiouM fj;jve U;\\, ho f/ay. f think a thousand 
tirneH a day of my (Icur mother and HinU^^ and a« 
ofte-n of yon." 

}\\H journey over the mountyjin?* to Whee-hn^j, wa« 
f:xr,(,(:(\\i\u\y r;xfiriuHtinf/, and rnunt fifive left him 
friiif;fi worne tfinn it found hirrj, fiut at Wfj.«<fiingt/jn, 
and elnewhere, he t/;<>k great, jnterent in politif;?il 
affairs, anrj in wfiat.ever wa«< efiaraet/;ri?itie of tfi/j 
[leople anrl the f:ourjtry through which he \rnM^-A\, 
\\\H ]>uHHiif/(: rJown the r)fjio wan hIow, and, amid a 
r.rowd of travellers, fie wan Had anr] Holitary. iJut at 
LouinvilJe an old friend arjfj towrr-.rnan, Nichol?i.<< Gil- 
r/ian. at ^ome pernonal inr.onvenienee; joined him, and 
travelled several flayn in tfie name boat. William, in 
a letter to hin father. aekno'/vl<;flged hi.H of>ligatiorjH to 
30 



^a" by-^MW ^fe(v^ ttw^W luo hvi *ihI «ol unxjuxi* 

R'^ilu^ MniaioUMr^ htV> i^' l^\\H\v t\vr the tluixl tu\K\ 
«iii\i w^$ su^ck with tK<> nN!5tM)>hhu\iv In^^rnvn yv>ur 

thirty i^Ndrs <4d) «t Oh> imu> ^^^ bt^r iUhaUk ^lui. by 

tW tx^w hxut^ whult arx^ lort ^^f hor oluu^u tow ap}H\u^ 
to lvA>x^ Ihvo »u oxivUonl aiul ;uiuuiatvK^ ^v^Muu^ ; 
siK^ \ii^$ ttK^l »irtWMkxiK\loh aiui pU>^i^iy v4vvxMv;u\t ot' 
her t^uhor : an\i. tv> tl\o U5i\unl ^nu^\'i of hor ji^>\ Ik^x- 
iiuj hvUI^hI tho UH>ix^ ^ivxhvi 4^v^^M\\J^hv<hulo^\ts v\f know- 

iXuwjxiuuMX a$ >voU as ^loluiht of his «\;:x\* It is not 
stmiuix^ ilwt MuUiloion a^Us. as tho iiixNUcsl oalanuiy 
whu h vvuKt IvUUl luin, tl\o * Kvts ^^f such tt ilax^i^\ti>r» 
in iKo priiwe of l\or UU\ u\ U\o nuvst iNM\\fovtU\ss 
s^wsvMi of his v>\vn/ Uo so^»;^it for cous\>latuM\ ux his 
hbmry. aiui ho knind uot i\>ns\xlation. but alU^>u\litm 
of griof in that t\vr^xMt"uhioss. which dovotion to iutor- 
ostiuii intoUootuai ^Mn-suits oixwtos. It is our duty 
to act tow^uvis tho lioaii whvMii >vo lo>od. :is to\>auis 
ibo hviiv^ — to ronunnlHM aiul tv^ tiM^^,\^t (Iumu. W \wn 



w*^f*',,, fUrwn U'rtit )tt^,n^*zu U* *f^ti\t, if .?h''/*il/J r 

no fUfii\ft tli^t iff, AMMt ^/ijtin U*fffi *'/rtt1hmiU'^ in 

or \>*f4\y^ (f^ff St*', i/fi\m \fy \^*'/:\Ait^ up UU pUy^ 
air^i nynU'^iitf wUwJi^ Hii^u\^ffyt'A^ Uh tftt^ii nttiff^ t/> 
mrt iSffWu,) \mi ftn tiM t^mi hi «IPrvi;itif>$/ Wm u/f^ 

'^f'mst'A for \hUi/, fiJifi witf» %t'A^u*'A Uf '/.;#,♦ if,i\,ff,^ /^ 

*'- llif, UitAft*^^ of my fr\*',fuU t*/mUwu-^ ntth\f4,U'A. 
Ill UtrA fit A \w\m<mn f'/ffitm/'.]^ fW>*rrt w a fh\Jitf^^ 
'it A ih f)if*'/^'tofifiU', nurnm^ffi n'lni/^ Htu\ m^/ilt^, In 
oti*i rf'M^i^'M my am*'. ft',%(^tt\tU',% i\mi of *mr *Uf4t Mtfim^ 
who rM; ytfti Uttow,^ ihni it %U*f*M \f*: rf/jftAfA <m 
)i<:r ffiorniffif'jil fiiat nUf'. * tS'uA of fM k\in\r\*:m of h/rr 
irt*:iAn/ VV'xild Uf fu^iff^ fiwt I f'//»U cfijojr it^'.r 
o'jlrn \ffi1'u:nf'/:.^ Uf:r ho\y r*'/H'ii/ttii1unt^^ 

(U,ftSr(;y\\\*'y ifiunufy %*$. IH^'JO. -' / ;jrr> s^-.ry ftnx^ 
uf^in f/; >i*5?ir of CoUnif.) W'Akf.r * urA fumWy. W}tf'ji \ 
wsiH if) i}if'. rjWtn of wy ff-.vf.r hX I'., ('oUpfthl W?ilk<;f 
<'m\\*A Ut t(4'A Uif%, l/ijt vfm rt'Su'*^A tif\tnimffri. tm *-,s*^,ry 
'ffifi ^J*/; WftM. * I 9iu\ nur*'./ hf, r^ypI'Mj^, * ^i w'tfl Wbh 
utt oU\ frtt-rni \\\i*; ftu,.^ f 'Wftj-XfA ih*^rn U> iovif/; 
f/irri io */,Ui(; up. ff<; tjnut*-, ;itA naX f\own by my 



■ ' ki(>^.*-M 'ft Ut*^^ Uff UAUJ y^ft 



35:2 LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 

bed, and for some moments said nothini:;:. Just 
before he rose to leave me he took my luind, and 
expressed his behef in my recovery in kini^uage so 
encouraging, and his wishes for my recovery in words 
so warm and aliectionate, as to make the blood rush 
through every vein. I was somewhat overcome by 
the interview. But when I got over that, the recol- 
lection of it gave a nerve to my system, and I then 
said, that from that time I dated the beginning of my 
recovery. Let me hear of him." 

In a letter to his father, dated February 7, he 
says : . '' That spirit of liberality, which you have 
always shown towards me in money matters, and I 
should say especially in them, if 1 did not perceive 
the operation of the same spirit in all other matters 
between us from the beginning, etc." ... "I spend 
many hours of every day with you. I look in upon 
you when at study. I am with you, in full sym- 
pathy, during your hours of sad reflection." Feb- 
ruary 20. " P. S. — Sunday, P. M. I have just 
come across an odd volume of Seed's sermons, and 
have read two of them with delight. . . . Do you 
remember the discourse on a particular Providence, 
containing just enough of argument for the ingenious 
thinker, and enough of glowing exhortation for the 
warm-hearted Christian ? " In reply, J. S. says : 
" Your character of Seed's sermons is just. I have 
the same odd volume, and think just so of the ser- 
mon on a particular Providence," 

Judge Smith's letters to his son were, of course, 
mostly taken up with the little items of domestic in- 
telligence, which are so grateful to those who are 



LIFE or JUDGE SMITIf. 353 

away frorr) Ijofrif-. 'J'lioy alsoBhow what wore hin feel- 
in;iH. a/jfJ Ijow Ijo errjpJoyod fjin timo. " Nov. 5. Jr^^9. 
J have returned to tfie tJisk of }jij;jtjfjr_/ uj> ijjo ac?id- 
errjy lands witij no other guide- fjut ohl deedn, two or 

three hundred aeeoiintK, niirjiites. etc I am 

not Kfj/i^iuine as to HUcee.sSj but. to tell you a Keeret, 
I ffjiist have (;friployrrje-nt. My unemployed liours 
;jre heavy. J have one Huhjeet only to exercise rny 
thoughts uporj. and ifjat unhls me for the living. 

].; very thing 1 nee arjd hear is ho urjhke 

1 think, as at [^resent advised, 1 shall not spend the 
wifjter at tlie Tremont liouse, but in rny own cornfort- 
;j[>le Jjorrje,"' 

Jt was a winter of heavy pecuniary embarrass- 
ments and failures in Kxeter; and tfiis brougljt upon 
.Judge Smitfj. as presifJent oi tlje barjk. and treasurer 
of the academy, no small increase of labor. After 
giving an account of these reverses, he says. •• you 
can conceive of tlje exercise of tongues here — all 
w;ig. Little of all J liave stfited is generally (accu- 
rately; known, but erjough to set that little machine 

a-goifjg It is a solemn business, transferring 

tlie furjds of the bank from the late to tlje present 
cashier. * * * * himself seems to feel it so." — 
•' Strange that people cannot see a little way into 
the future."' ....■• It seemed very odd to me to 
return (:\(-Ay night for a fortnight of this rough 
weather, take my meals all alorje, arjd have not a 
mortal to speak to of the thousand tfjings daily and 
Ijourly occurring." 

Gth February. '-I am very well. Proof — no- 
thirjg but shame prevented my doing the duty of 



354 LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 

cashier. The public would have cried out, avarice ! 
and appearances would have been against me. The 
world cannot know how much I love employment. 
How can our young men love idleness ? To me it is 
inconceivable. If the evidence were not before my 
eyes, I should doubt the fact. Do you not feel as if 
you would like to be register of deeds ? " 

1st March. "I wish you had the book I have just 
finished — Second Series of Tales of a Grandfather. 
They are excellent ; the most interesting parts, from 
I. James VI., 1603, to the union of 1705, are served 

up in Sir Walter's best manner He unites 

simplicity, good taste, wit, impartiality, boldness, can- 
dor, shrewdness, sound judgment, a philosophic spirit, 
Slc. These volumes have amused me much, as much 
as Old Mortality. lie is a shrewd Scotchman. Hea- 
ven grant he may .hold out my time. When I am 

gone, he may go as soon as he will These 

Tales of a Grandfather will do something to promote 
the morality of government. Would that they might 
teach our small New Hampshire rogues good man- 
ners. You know the election is now going on, which 
reminds one strongly of good breeding — Incus a noii 
luccndoy 

"... I am in no danger, 1 think, of writing a 
history of Exeter, or any other history. I have not 
been so much engaged for many years as in the last 
three months. Providence seems to provide work 
for me, knowing, I suppose, that it is good for me. 
I verily think it is so. It is a great objection to the 
grave that there is no work there." 

2i>d March. " It is too late in the day to talk 



LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 355 

about the moral character of the candidate. Moral 
character is a good thing, but has little or nothing to 
do with an election. One likes to have one's con- 
nexions and friends moral, but one's governor, it is 

toute autre chose Your cousins [deaf and 

dumb] have sent you and me each two pairs of fine 
woollen hose, spun and knit by themselves, with a 
pretty letter. E. says, Ariana used to knit for her 
father, and now that she is in heaven, she and her 
sisters determined in this to supply her place. If 
they live good and virtuous lives here, she has no 
doubt of meeting her in heaven.* ... I need not 
tell you that I am very well. If I could only get rid 
of meals and evenings, I should do well, provided I 
had plenty of business to do. If I could step into 
your house now and then, I should be glad. I sup- 
pose you would gladly return the visit. We must 
each do the best we can as it is. I hope, after an- 
other winter and spring in Mississippi, you will come 
to us with confirmed health, and will help the good 
here to maintain their ground against the bad. God 
bless you, prays yours always, J. S." 



' Judge Smith always took a warm interest in these nieces, and did not 
forget ihem in bis last sickness. They were educated at Hartford, and 
once, as I find in a memorandum made by Judge Smith, when on their way 
home, were met by a Connecticut lawyer, who had the following conver- 
sation with one of them in writing. "Do you love your enemies?" 
Ans. — "I ought to love my enemies, but sometimes I forget." " Did 
Christ die for all sinners ? " Ans. — " For all that trust in him. None 
benefited by his death but those who believe and trust him." A lady 
present wished the following question to be put. " Is the power of 
Christ equal to that of the Father ? " The gentleman at first declined, 
as touching on a doctrine of scholastic divinity, and beyond their reach ; 
but, on being urged, he put it. Ans. — " Jesus Christ has no power, but 
what is derived from the Father." 



356 Lirr. or .n nr,r. smith. 

24th March. ** I Knli^oil at tho same hoiijft^ with 
J. U.. bocinniiii: iho praotiro at 0. Ho must, I think, 
advanoo slowly ; ho has nioro taliMits than \\c sooms 

to ha\o. It' uoiilii UmuI hini a htllo owlish 

wisdom, it would piotit him. Ho may mako a 

lawvor. Tlio mattor is still in ihihio with . 

Ho is waniiui: to himsoll". haviuiJi tho oapahihtios. .\ 
fou voars sotllo ovory man's oaso. rank, standini:. I 
undorsland tho jury t^tho worlds liavo i^ivon in thoir 
vorditM. Possibly ho may roviow. ... 1 had somo 
curiosit) to soo how tho tall in I'xotor and ot Jvxotor 
would atVoct vou. Timo will euro tho hroaoh. and 
perhaps mond our comlition. It is always a urc^jt 
point izainod to know our truo condition, ami shi[> otV 
our loolish priilo. Init nono ot" thoso things movo 

tlio iluU and hoav) . Straui^o that ho docs not 

at once march up and take tho Sheridan oath. • It is 
in mo. and by it shall come out.' '* 

At'lcr the tirst latiuuo was over, tho Mississippi 
climate soomcil to be of i^rcat service to Mr. Smith. 
In a letter dated *27th Hecember, he says : " I have 
had deliiihtt'ul rides on horseback. It is impossible 
lor vou to imagine the happiness 1 lelt as I cantered 
over the plantation paths, tlnou^h woods abounilini;- 
with the most splendid evergreens I ever saw, and 
my ears tilled ^^ itli the nuisic ot* swcci singing birds. 
As I rode, lite sccmoil to come to me in the smell o( 
the frai::rant pines. I do not mean to exaggerate 
when I sav, that thrills ot' returning health ran 
through mv whole system, so ex(|uisite as almost to 
occasion I'aintness." In the last letter that he ever 
wrote with his own hand to his lather, (^Feb. '21,) ho 



l.tVK OF .ICIX/K SMITH. iJoT 

H'.iyH, " I havf; fj',i\n<;(\ in ono irionlfi arjd two dayH no 
K'HS tlinri five [)oiin(lH of ^oofi hourifj fIcHfi, wliirJi I 
li.'jvf; laid out, in ornarnonfal work." "J'fir; rif;xt letter 
tfiat, fiis father received wan vvriften \>y Williarri'H 
[>liysician, anrl loft no roaHonahIo lio[)0 of liin rc- 
f:overy. ft contain(;fl ifiosf; lines, fJir:t,ate<i by Wil- 
liarn. '• My dear fat.fier : you know what satisfaction 
it wrMjJd j.dve me to be abK; to write to you, at this 
tirnf;, with my own fianri ; but you know, too, just 
vvfiat tfie seTitiments would f^e-, wliiefi a le-tter written 
under tfie |)res<;nt r:irr:umstane,f;H, would eoritain. 1 
ho[K; that a <-Jian;/e will shortly takr; [>Iaee for the 
f>ettor. May (iofi bless you a/i(J uic, uud [jre[;are uh 
botfi for fiin fjoly will and [>leasufe conccjh'ih'^ me." 

'J'o this .fud^^e Smith rejjiied. April U). " My 
flear William : I fiave Dr. Ma;.^oun's letter, |>OHt,- 
markerl 15th Marefi, and Jlobert Smith's, .same date. 
I need not say liow they affect nic. I have not, I 
hope, neglected you in my prayers. Heaven knows 
with what earnestness and sincerity 1 fiave prayed 
lor your recovery, f can join you from tfie bottom 
of my heart. ' May (iod f>less you and me, and 
firefiare us botfi for his holy will.' At this time, as 
you say, it would ^dve me a [>leasure J cannot ex- 
[)rcss, to Jiave a lettr;r in your own fiand, thougfi I 
f:an well erir)U?_di irrja^/ine what it wr^uld contain, and 
wouhJ not have you s[jend any streTif_^lh in writing. 
[ am very, very glad you are with your cousin, and I Jr. 
M. your nurse. . . . Tfiough I fiave no fears thatyou 
will lack any nursing and attentions, it would still 
afford me the highest satisfactiori, your situation will 
allow me, to be witfj yr>u. Two montfjs ago f se- 



358 LIFF, OF JrOGF. SMITH. 

riously thought ot' sottiiii:" out, but your ahoroil ac- 
counts roniloroil the jourm^v unnocossaiy. I cannot 
but ho{H^ that the account ot' you tVoin Or. M. will 
prove to have been the clVect ot* the ret inn ot' your 
coniphiints t'or a short season, and that this ^^ iH t'nul 
you better. 

'' God grant the next letter may tell lut^ so. In 
the nieantinie, I pray Ood to bless you, and lo give 
you strength and t'ortitudo in this lime of need. Your 
atiectionate t'ather." 

Whatever ot' lingering liopo may have remained 
was soon lost. Twelve days bet'ore the date o( this 
letter, another had been written by Robert Smith. 
** Your son William has left us. lie cx}>iicd this 
morning at a quarter before six. The last words ho 
spoke, which was a tew minutes bet'ore he died, were 
to request me to bury him beside my two little boys." 

From Judge Smith to Mrs. Walker, April 'j;V. 
1S30. '" What we feared has come to pass. Wil- 
liam is no more. The account comes to me from 
Robert, immediately after he expired, which was 
Monday luorning, '29{h jNIarch. The letters of the 
two preceding weeks had, in some measure, prepared 
me for this event, but we are never fully prepared. 
Indeed the event of the -^Oth of .lune, of which you 
were a witness, returns fresh upon me. No words 
can express how precious her sympathy would now 
be. When he was tirst sick, two years ago, and 
she quite well, we thought it not improbable that we 
both might survive him. Alas ! I now alone remain. 
It is a great consolation to me to believe that }ioor 
William, in his last days, was among friends, kind, 



MFK OF JTJDCIK SMITH. 359 

Hympathizin^ friondH, and had tfif- (■xocMjiy nurHing 
of li'iH <)\(\ fViond, Dr. Mm^/mn^ who [)rr)[)f<sf;s ro- 
rrujinin^' in jMissiHsij)[>i." 

In uii(}\.U(-r h;t.t,(;r of tho Krirrio dnt.o, lio Bays : " May 
yon iK'.wcr oxfKjrionr^o what is nf>w my caso, tfjo sad 
thonjifjf. r)!" }iJi.viriJ.y;ntlivof] all wlio lovo you." 

Tho ra[>iflit.y witfi whif.h tlioujifits tho rriost. diverse 
flash n[)on the mind, in the intensity of its r^motions, 
is one of tfie stranprcj faets c:onnf;eterJ witfi our na- 
turf;. There is a mild nrirJ soothin^^ sorrow, whieh 
we dwell ufion witfi fondness, and in wfiiefi we efier- 
ish only tliose images and irnf)ressions, whieh liar- 
rnonize witfi tfie general sadness of our feelings. But 
therci is a sense of hereavr;m(;nt so intense, that the 
rrjind, as if to forget its desolation, turns away invol- 
urjtarily to its accustomed occupation, and, by a sort 
of mr;chanieal force, fastens itself there, pursuing 
for a time, almost unconsciously, its usual train of 
thought. The above hitter was written on Friday. 
On Saturday .Judge Smith made this entry in his 
common-place }>ook : ''Junius said, 'I weigh every 
word,' and every alteration is a blemish. His style 
was correct and elegant. Sir Walter Scott does not 
stop at any word ; he weighs the sense, and conse- 
quently is full of errors in language, and ficauty of 
sentiments and composition." On Sunday the fol- 
lowing note was read in the cliiireh wliere he wor- 
shipf)ed : " .Jeremiafi Smith desires f)rayers that the 
rece'fit death of his son, the last of his fanjily, in a 
distant state, may be sanctified to fiim, and tfiat tfjis 
tfiriee-re[)eated strof<e of Divine Providence may serve 
to j>re[)are fiim for fiis departure lience, wfienever the 
summons sfiafl come." 



360 LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 

Judge Smith, to Robert Smith, of Mississippi. 
May 1, 1830. " My dear nephew : I have received 
your letter of the ''29th of March, written a few min- 
utes after William's death. Your and Dr. Magoun's 
letters, for the two preceding weeks, had, in some 
measure, prepared me for the sad tidings. I have 
delayed writing for some days, expecting a letter giv- 
ing a more particular account of liis life for the last 
three weeks. There is a melancholy satisfaction in 
learning the state of the poor sufferer in the last 
scene ; how he met that enemy who is sure to con- 
quer ; the exercises of his mind ; his confidence in 
his Maker, when all earthly help fails, Slc. His sis- 
ter exceeded anything I ever witnessed. She seemed 
wonderfully supported, perfectly resigned and sub- 
missive to the will of God. It is not strange I should 
now recur to her last moments. How precious would 
her sympathy now be to me ! 

" I am alone in the wide world, ' a single column, 
unpropped and nodding to its fall.' I cannot find 
words to express the satisfaction it gives me to be- 
lieve, that William had every attention, kindness and 
comfort, after he reached your house. It could not 
save his life, but it must have eased his pain and soft- 
ened his couch. In Jiis letters he spoke in grateful 
terms of your and your wife's uniform kindness to 
him, and I know Dr. M. must have been all that we 
could desire." 

In a letter to J. H. Morison, after using the same 
figure of a single column, Slc, he adds : '' But it is 
far from my intention to be misanthrope or cynic, if 
I can help it, or to let the aforesaid column hurt any 



LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 361 

body in its descent, as descend it must, and that ere 
long. But I am yet very well, and more liappy, or 
rather less unhappy than I feared." 

In his common-place book he wrote, June li-2, 
^' ' Be not solitary, be not idle,' the last I can com- 
mand." " I have certainly enough of that perilous 
stulV that weighs upon the heart." 

It was not, perhaps, till after the death of his 
daughter, that Judge Smith had begun to appreciate 
fully the character of his son, and to feel towards 
liim all the tenderness of a father. In one place, 
after quoting the words " we can only have one 
mother," he adds : " It seems to me I could only 
have one child. Forgive me, W." Judge Smith 
was not given to regrets, but is not this an allccting 
confession of partiality, with an acknowledgment that 
it was not right ? ' 

" I live," he said, " in solitary majesty ; in oriental 
seclusion, in the realm of silence and the land of 
oblivion ; left at large to pursue my own designs, 
whatever they may be." *• I hope," he said again, 
borrowing the expression, I believe, in ])art from 
Oberlin, " that I bear my losses of dear friends as I 
ought, not from that lightness or elasticity of mind 
which flies from all painful thoughts, not from that 



1 There is something quite touching in what I find written in h.ilf 
sentences, as e. g. " f;^ ' A falling house, with a single column left, 
(and that tottering to its fall).' Iphigeuia's dream. The single column 
in the dream was Orestes, here, I. 

' Wo unto hini who leads a lonely life 
From children and from kindred banished I'ar,' " &c. 

31 



369 LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 

hard and hardening philosophy, which submits with 
sullen pride to what is inevitable, but from an entire 
submission to that Providence wiiich, having made all 
things in goodness, orders them in mercy." 

On looking over what I have written, I fear that I 
may have given too unfavorable a j)icture of William 
Smith. His faults were the striking incidents in a 
life, whose virtues, belonging to its every day current, 
cannot be so described as to fill out in his biograi)hy 
the space they occupied in the daily course of events. 
It has been a painful task to dwell on his infirmities. 
But when I remember how they caused his day, 
which dawned with so much promise, to close in 
darkness before its time ; when I call to mind how 
bitterly he mourned over the errors, through which 
his early hopes and the expectations of his friends 
were blasted, and how solemnly he warned others 
against them ; I feel it to be a duty, which his kind 
and generous spirit requires of me, to add his to 
the thousand examples already existing, of a noble 
mind, with all the advantages of education and so- 
ciety, given in vain, from the want of a strong and 
steadfast purpose in life. If the great assembly of 
the gifted young, who have thus wasted time, for- 
tune, character, health, hope, and life, could be per- 
mitted to come back, with Robert Burns at their 
head, and exhibit all that they have suflered, in order 
to warn those who, with the same rash confidence, 
are entering now upon the same career of folly and 
of ruin, I can conceive of no spectacle at once so 
touching and so sad. 

It is a great satisfaction to be able to introduce 



LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 363 

here the testimony of one ' who, in antiquarian zeal 
and knowledge, was inferior to no man in New Eng- 
land, and whose death, while yet in the vigor of life, 
was a public calamity. He had for some time cor- 
responded with William Smith on historical matters ; 
and in June, 1830, wrote to Judge Smith : " My 
acquaintance with your son was very limited, but 
enough to convince me of his genius and talents, 
and to lament that such brilliant powers should be 
forever extinguished. As a member of the Histo- 
rical Society, much was expected from him, and, had 
he lived, much would doubtless have been realized. 
It is much to be regretted that he did not complete 
his History of Exeter, as the ardor and zeal with 
which he entered on the work, the extended and 
liberal plan he had contemplated, the wide range of 
his inquiries and researches, insured one of the most 
perfect local histories that have appeared in our sec- 
tion of the country. I hope the materials he col- 
lected have been left in such a state, that they may 
yet be arranged, and presented in the form of a his- 
torical deduction. Without dwelling on this subject, 
I would most respectfully suggest the propriety of 
having something of him preserved in the form of a 
memoir ; something which shall appear in a future 
volume of the collections of a society, of which he 
was one of the founders, and an active member. 
One object of our society is to preserve memorials of 
our associates who have finished their course on earth. 
I cannot but hope that you will favor the society 

1 John Farmer. 



364 LIVF. OF Jri>t;K. SMITH. 

with some sketch oi soniothin^ inoro, which shall f>iT- 
potualo his iiicinorv." 

The tollowiui:,- obituary notice, tliawii u[> hv :i 
frieiul/ who know W'ilham Smith well, aiul who 
could appreciate his excellent t|ualities ot' niiiul anil 
heart, may serve as a lilting cK>se to this melanchoU 
chapter. •• Colonel Smith was a iionlleman ot" early 
and much promise in protessional and political lit'o 
— having been admitted to the bar at about the aiiO 
of twenty-one, and returned as a menibc r ot" the le- 
gislature of New Hampshire in his twenty-third year. 
He rejnesented Kxeter with tidelity and ability, tor 
three successive terms. His liealih, constitntionallv 
delicate, had Iveu gradually tailing tor two or three 
years prior to his decease. He was induced to try 
the etlect ot' a milder climate in ameliorating his ilis- 
ease, and the result of a winter's residence at the 
west seemed, for a time, to be very favorable. But 
tlie hopes of his friends have been blasted, and the 
only remaining temlril that wreathed around the soli- 
tary pillar of a noble house, has been severed iVom the 
stately column it was designed to have strengthened 
and supported." 

1 Goorgo Kent, Estj., ot' Concord, N, 11. 



CllAni'Ai. XWl. 
.u:i)(.y. hMj-jn':-, S'ji;/>/Kh — lAj/n.M.r. o.^■7HK j-r./r-.r.jT 

Of K.'.fnvJJ,/j(,K ■rAJA):il) MAKitlAOL '.AyjNO.S 

AM> J.)/J J KJth. 

.U:I)<a: S.MJ7 jf w;j.h tjow UM fji\\r(:\y alonf;. ifjs rio- 
rrif;Ht.ic 7i.ii'<j:U<)itH, wfjich vvf:ro .'jrrion^ liio Htron^^cHt 
i<-/:\]niJH f>i }ii:-j fj;it.ijrc. IjjkJ fiotljjng lo f<;r:t upon. I 
w.'jH w'ltJj Ijirn rrjufJi in tIjoHC hJH timen of t.rjhtjK'iljofj, 
Jirj(i do fiot. tfiifik fj^; f;Vf;r know wJjfit if. w;j,h to p;iHn a 
(i(:H\>(>n<\inu (Uiy. 'i'Uc. outward <MrY<j\\. of IjJk WUt 
\\<)\\<A on c'ilmoHt aH hrir_diljy as fjf;fojf;: for. if iho 
Jj^djts of fiJH fjomo fjad boon witlidrawri; rrjorf; of tfjfi 
]^^^}lt. of lio-avon roHtod upon it. Muofj is to f>o attri- 
[>ijtod to tfif^ /jattjral olanlioity of fiis unu(\. and rnor^j 
to }jjs rcli^ioiJH convictionH. iiut fjow njrjny devout 
inon broak down under suofi oircurriHtarjooH. puroly 
ljf;f;.'jiJHf; tlicy find uovUifif/ to do. wliirh fjan intorc-nt 
onou^fi to fin'fi;iJ4i(i tfioir atfontjorj I Tfj^y rnu.Hfj upon 
tfif^ir HorrowK, till t}jf;y liavo no bo-art for anything 
ol:-;o. 'J'boy wfiri/jk from .society, and Hfyfi'uXy shrink.^ 
from tbom. Tbo ;:olJtiifJo, wbicb Provjdonr;f; fjad 
31* 



366 LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 

made to last but for a season, is thus enlarged and 
perpetuated by the selfishness of their grief; their 
faculties fail for want of exercise, and the sad rem- 
nant of their days is burthensome to themselves and 
to all about them. Judge Smith did not, for a single 
week, give up his usual occupation. He continued 
in the pursuit of knowledge w^ith all the freshness of 
his youthful affections ; and considered it, as we 
have already seen from his letters to William, a mer- 
ciful dispensation which had greatly increased his 
labors in business. " Did you never," he asked, 
" feel and enjoy the pleasure of ease after labor, and 
the pleasure arising from the reflection that you had 
done something to increase the stock of your intel- 
lectual and moral powers, or even your wealth ? " 
Labor, as well as virtue, was to him its own reward. 
He settled his son's affairs, which had been left in a 
perplexed and embarrassed condition, and paid his 
debts. He examined and arranged all his and his 
daughter's papers. 'In 1828, he had succeeded Gov. 
Oilman as a trustee of Phillips Exeter Academy, and 
soon after was appointed treasurer, which made it his 
duty to draw up an annual report of the funds of the 
academy. Owing to the disordered state in which he 
found them, he examined their history from the be- 
ginning, inspecting carefully all the records and other 
papers which had been accumulating for nearly half 
a century. This required of him more than a year 
of solid labor ; and his reports might be recom- 
mended as models, uniting with accuracy and clear- 
ness in minute details, those sound and comprehen- 
sive principles, by which the affairs of such an insti- 



LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. ' 367 

tution ought to be administered. It was a subject 
which he had greatly at heart as long as he Uved. 

He was much interested in the popular movements 
for the diffusion of useful knowledge, which, begun a 
few years before in England, had then just reached 
this country. He went through quite an extended 
course of reading on the natural sciences. During 
his daughter's sickness he had read several treatises 
on consumption, and now, with the eagerness of a 
young man, went into the whole subject of physi- 
ology, but particularly that portion of it which is 
called animal mechanics. This science, not less than 
the most magnificent and stupendous of all sciences 
— that which treats of the heavenly bodies — led 
him to bow in reverence and humility before the Al- 
mighty Creator. The weakness of our own frames 
was to him an evidence of the divine wisdom and 
goodness, through which they had been formed. 
" The liabihty to pain and injury," he said, " only 
proves how entirely the human body is formed with 
reference to the mind, and to a state of trial and dis- 
cipline ; since, without the continued call to exertion, 
which danger and the uncertainty of life infer, the 
development of our faculties would be imperfect, 
and the mind would remain, as it were, uneducated. 
It is one thing to make a machine for the purposes 
of the body only, and another to make a machine 
for a body with a mind and soul. Weakness and 
liability to injury, therefore, imply no imperfection in 
the frame of our bodies. A deep contemplation of 
the subject will evince the incomparable perfection 
both of the plan and execution. The body was in- 



368 • LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 

tended by our all-wise, all-good and merciful Cre- 
ator to be subject to derangement and accident, and 
to become in the course of life more and more fra- 
gile, until, by some failure in the frame-work or vital 
action, life terminates. That the soul may live, this 
tabernacle of clay must be dissolved and perish." 

Geology he examined with the same feeling of de- 
vout admiration. " It brings us," he says, (and I 
quote his words to illustrate his habits of thought, 
rather than because they are original, for they were 
probably borrowed, in part at least, from some of the 
treatises which he had been reading,) ^' into intimate 
acquaintance with the noblest objects and phenom- 
ena of nature — with the grand features of mountain 
scenery — their towering summits — their eternal 
snows — the abrupt waterfall — the river now tumb- 
ling and foaming through a narrow gorge, now 
gently rippling over an expansive valley, now wind- 
ing through wide alluvial plains to the bosom of the 
mighty ocean — with earthquakes, volcanoes, and 
the flood which drowned the ancient world. What 
mighty changes have been produced in the earth by 
these ! — now rounding a pebble, now laying the 
foundation of future islands and continents. The 
constant progress of animated existence, ever varied, 
but ever adapted to the circumstances which attend 
it ; — who can contemplate without religious awe and 
veneration, the arrangements, whether of the organic 
or mineral world, (the sure marks of a First Cause.) 
acting by uniform, invariable laws, bringing order 
and utility out of the seeming elements of chance 
and confusion ; connecting the peak of the mountain 



LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 369 

and the bottom of the ocean in one chain of mutual 
dependence, and rendering the whole subservient to 
the existence of that abundance of life and enjoy- 
ment, for which all has been beneficently contrived." 

In the winter of 1830-1, Judge Smith zealously 
engaged with several gentlemen of the village in 
getting up something like a Lyceum in Exeter, " less," 
as he said, " with a view of teaching others, than of 
stirring them up to teach themselves." He gave the 
first lecture, and the last, of the course. He spared 
no pains or labor in the preparation, and transcribed 
more than once or twice the greater part of what he 
wrote. " Speaking of myself," he said, " I set down 
the labor, which my small part in the concern im- 
poses, as nothing. Indeed, I am persuaded that there 
is nothing better for a man, all the days of his 
life here upon earth, than labor spent in a good 
cause ; and such I believe this to be. It would give 
me pleasure to aid my young fellow-townsmen in 
acquiring a competence of this world's goods, and far 
more to aid them in gaining that which is better 
than riches — useful and practical knowledge. The 
man who has the ability to give this aid in any the 
smallest degree, and withholds it, is criminal. The 
aged especially owe it to those who have just entered 
on the journey of life, through which they have 
nearly passed, to fit and prepare them for what they 
may be called to do or to suffer ; above all, to point 
out to them the dangers that beset their path, and 
show them the road to usefulness, both as it regards 
themselves and their country. 

^' It is not a narrow sentiment to lo\e our own 



370 LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 

town, our neiglibors and the friends that surround 
us ; to wisli that they may be particularly distin- 
guished and spoken of with applause. To do good, we 
must confine our labors to a circle where our exer- 
tions will be felt ; that is, to a small one. I have no 
particular desire that our houses or furniture, our 
equipages, our dress, should be finer than those of 
others, or that we should be richer than they. All 
this is mere appearance — the outside of things ; but 
to see our townsmen better educated, possessing more 
knowledge, better fitted to act well their several parts 
in life, and withal possessing better manners, more 
temperance and sobriety, more virtuous habits — this 
is a consummation, a state of things devoutly to be 
wished. Life is surely worth more, in such a society, 
than in such as we commonly meet with. Who 
would not choose to live and die, when his time 
comes, in the midst of such a society ? 

" There is an age when it is unseemly to go to 
school, but there is no period of life when it is un- 
seemly to learn ; and most true it is, that after all that 
colleges and schools can do for us, the greatest part 
of the work of education must be done by ourselves, 
if done at all. We finish our college education but 
to begin our studies. ^ He has done well in the short 
period of academical life, who has acquired a taste 
for letters, and a capacity to acquire knowledge. 

" My design in this lecture is to lay before you a 
general view of the wide field to be entered upon and 
cultivated by you, as your opportunities may allow, or 
your inclinations prompt ; and suggest some consid- 
erations to induce you immediately and in earnest to 



LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 371 

set about the cultivation of your intellectual powers, 
that 3^ou may qualify yourselves to be useful and re- 
spectable members of society, and what is far more, 
provide for yourselves a source of pleasure and hap- 
piness, while engaged in the active business of life, 
and when that is over, comfort, solace and respecta- 
bility in old age." 

This was a subject in which Judge Smith's whole 
heart was engaged. The love of knowledge, which 
had dawned like the star of his destiny on his early 
youth, shed its benignant light on his declining years, 
and cheered his pathway to the grave. " I have all 
my life," he said, " been so ignorant as not to know 
the value of ignorance. I think with Goethe, who 
once said with a smile, ^ I have always found it good 
to know somediing.' " 

" I am afraid," he continued in his lecture, " that 
the wide field I have opened to your view may, in 
some less bold minds, serve to repress and intimidate, 
rather than excite to exertions. They see so much 
to do, so great and arduous labor to be performed, 
that they are ready to forego all the rewards, however 
great, it promises. Many a traveller faints at the 
view of the towering Alps — mountains piled on 
mountains ; he is content to remain all his life in the 
valley below, rather than attempt the difficult ascent. 
I would not conceal from you the difficulties that lie 
in the path of knowledge. Indeed I am acquainted 
with no good thing attainable without labor and toil. 
Man was made to labor, and I sincerely pity him who 
finds nothing to do. ' Dii laboribus omnia vendimtJ 
The gods do not give, but sell everything to industry. 



372 LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 

But at the same time, I am persuaded there are 
few who set out in earnest to acquire knowledge or 
any other good thing, that may not count on success. 
* Seek and you shall surely find,' is as true of know- 
ledge as of the pearl of infinitely greater value. Be- 
sides, the knowledge I recommend to you, is not of 
the abstruse kind, lying at the bottom of a well, and 
to be fished up only by curious machinery, and by a 
few favored individuals. Literature is a republic, 
and every man may aim at the highest place. The 
most useful knowledge lies near the surface ; and that 
is the case, (so good and so bountiful is heaven,) with 
all good things for man here upon the earth. We all 
know we have minds as well as bodies, and that the 
mind is the more excellent part, and susceptible of 
the purer and more refined enjoyments ; why then 
should we not lay up a stock for its use and enjoy- 
ment, in all times to come 1 You may rest assured, 
my friends, that the heart cannot be enlightened, if 
the understanding is left in darkness ; nor the intel- 
lectual part be healthy, while the moral nature is un- 
sound. 

'• But some are ready to say, • I am not blessed 
with genius, and without genius it is impossible to 
get knowledge.' I have had occasion, in my time, 
to remark innumerable mistakes on this very subject. 
By genius, is to be understood that peculiar structure 
of the mind inherited from nature, which possesses 
uncommon strength, particularly in the faculty called 
invention. Many suppose the man of genius a being 
sent into the world, ready made up, for everything 
great, and almost superhuman. He acquires know- 



LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 373 

ledge, pretty much as the possessor of Aladdin's lamp 
acquired riches, a splendid palace, and a fine princess 
for a wife. The genii, answering to our genius, 
could not procure him the princess to wife, but it 
brought him riches and the fine palace, and the wife 
came of course. He had only to rub the old lamp, 
and in a twinkling all he desired was his ; it was 
brought by liis genii. I have known a good many of 
these great geniuses at school and at college. They 
were supposed never to study, or studied nobody 
knew how or when. They struck out great things 
at a single heat. Now in sober truth these same 
geniuses were mostly idle, irregular fellows. They 
scorned all labor and all restraint. I have lived to 
see the beginning, the middle and the end of most of 
them that started in life when I did ; and 1 must say 
that the young men of no genius, in college language, 
that is, of common minds and industrious habits, gen- 
erally excelled these soi disant geniuses in scholar- 
ship, and when the business of life commenced, and 
the prizes were to be contended for, the geniuses 
commonly broke down early, and tiie prizes were 
won by a diflerent class of men. 

'' I do not deny that there is a diflference in the 
minds of men. Some acquire knowledge more easily 
than others. I have myself known a few — some of 
them intimately — not exceeding, perhaps, seven or 
eight in the whole, who seemed to get knowledge 
without effort ; pretty much as Colburn solved his 
questions in arithmetic, by a sort of intuition — a 
summary mental process. But we err in calling ec- 
centricity genius. It is quite a diflerent thing. Elo- 
32 



374 LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 

quence is not tionius. This word sliouUl bo used to 
characterize only the hiiihcst endowments of mind. 

'' Set aside a lew real i;:eniuses, and a small mnn- 
ber to whom nature seems to have allotted less than 
their fair proportion of intellect, and all between may 
boldly enter on the career of knowleilge, and conteml 
for the prizes, which society awards to the successl'ul 
comjK^titors. I have heard the idle and the slothfuh 
who meanly shrunk from the contest, ascribe their 
failure to the want of genius, when I knew it owing 
to the want of exertion. If it were not invidious, I 
could name the men. I have no hesitation, there- 
fore, in saying that the literary men o( my acquaint- 
ance are indebted for their lame to labor, and not 
genius. Viewing man as he comes into the world,, 
with faculties susceptible of cultivation — as the clay 
in the hand of the potter — it is not so much genius 
which has made one man to honor and another to 
dishonor, as culture, and that is but another name for 
labor and exertion. So that every man is indebted 
chieHy to himself for his knowledge and learning, 
whatever they may be. Generally sju^iking, they are 
procured, just as competence or wealth is })rocured. 
by honest industry and unremitting labor. The zeal 
of the aspirant urges him on from one to anotlier. 
believing nothing done, so long as anything remains 
to do. 

" Some of you must have observed young men in 
the same neighborhood, nay, in the bosom of the 
same family, one called a genius, and another scarcely 
above the point of mediocrity. They start together 
in the race of life, and you have seen the genius sink- 



LIFE or JTJDCE SMITTT. 375 

in^ in the scale of learning as well as character, and 
the mediocre ploflding on in Jiis slow but sure way to 
the temple of science, and at last reaching the emi- 
nence — the pride of his family and friends, and no 
less so of his country. I am confiflent that I do not 
go too far in afFirming, that extraordinary intellectual 
powers as often prove the hindrance, as the procuring 
cause of learning. Short steps, take enough of them, 
will carry you safer to the pinnacle, than long strides 
from which there is always danger of stumbling and 
falling to the bottom of the ascent. The best genius, 
after all, is that ardor of mind which prompts to ap- 
plication. Apply, and you are safe ; remit your exer- 
tions, and it is easy to see the end thereof, your 
genius to the contrary notwithstanding. It is of the 
nature of mind as well as body, tliat its powers should 
enlarge and improve by exercise, and grow torpid by 
sloth and inactivity. 

" The excuse, then, of want of genius or capacity, 
generally fails. To me it is clear that, in this favored 
country, all who have common y)Owers of mind with 
a sound body, have the means of acquiring a compe- 
tent share of learning. I do not go so far as Sir 
William Jones. It was a favorite opinion of his, that 
all men were born with an equal capacity for improve- 
ment. Still it must be admitted that their means arc 
not equal. Some are favored with leisure for intel- 
lectual pursuits ; with books, philosophical apparatus, 
with instructers ; while others are obliged to toil for 
their daily bread, and so have comparatively little 
time to spare for the cultivation of their minds — are 
without books, and without instructers. The one 



310 LIFE OF JUDGF SMITH. 

class have advaiitasres denied to the other. ^Vhat 
then ? l^ii the seore ot" leisure, have not the most 
laborious their leisure hours ? Thev may not be 
spent in dissipated eonipany, or in the haunts of in- 
teniperanee : but they may be wasted in idle com- 
panv. or, what is not nineh better, doini: notliini:. 
Let every man take an aeeount ot" his idle hours, and 
he will be surprised at the sum total — at twenty-one, 
years, and at lorty, many years. There is no perio<.l 
of lite, when the euhivalion ot" the mind should cease 
to be an object. Whether we shall enter on the 
next state of existence with the intellectual cultiva- 
tion attained in this, I know not ; but sure I am that 
it is good for a man to possess an improved and cul- 
tivated mind, rich in moral and intellectual stores, all 
the days of his pilgrimage here upon the earth. 

*' But books and instructors in sutHcient numbers 
are wanting. Then make the better use of a t"ew. 
I am very sure, iVom caretul observation, and t'rom 
some experience on the subject, that the multitude 
of books does not of itself give even book know- 
lediie, still less insure caret"ul reading, and make 
learned men. If one mind be in tlanger of starving 
for want of books, another is in danger of surfeit 
from too many. I have not forgotten my early 
days ; mv lot was cast in a part of our country, 
and at a time, when, except the best of all books, a 
single volume, there was almost literally none. I 
have walked miles to borrow — not novels. t"or there 
were none — but a volume of history or biograpliy. 
The long walk and the scanty food j>rocured only 
served to whet my appetite the more : so that before 



LIFK OF .IIIDfiR SMFTFr. 377 

I had reached fiomc wilh my treasur(;, valiinhle for 
its Rcarcerujss, I had literally (h;voiir(;d tljc ;4r(;aler 
purt of its contents. 

''If time would allow, it would be in my power to 
show how otiiers, uridf;r difliculties such as neither you 
nor I have had to contend with, have acciuired ^reat 
learning and fame — have ^^iven to themselves an 
education of the very l)(;st kind. They first felt in 
their souls a thirst for knowled^^c, an ardent, un- 
quenchable desire to acquire it, and then set about 
the work in earnest, — with all their minds and all 
their strength. They concpiered, though oi)posed by 
a host of enemies — want of leisure, want of in- 
structers, want of books, want of money, sometimes 
want of liealth — some even suffering im{)risonment 
— some engaged in uncongenial and distracting oc- 
cupations ; obliged to contend against the force of 
opposing exam[)le, tlie discouragement of friends and 
relations, and withal, knowing, as regarded some, 
that the better part of life was spent and gone. 
These unpropitious circumstances Jiave all, separately 
or in various combinations, exerted their induenco 
either to check the [)ursuit of knowledge, or [)revcnt 
the very desire of it from s[)ringing up; but all in 
vain. In many cases the op[)Osition only served to 
carry the aspirant still higher and farther in the de- 
lightful road. 

" l*erhaps, indeed, we err in setting some of these 
things down as hindrances. I verily believe, from 
my own ol)servation, that the tendency of poverty, 
for exam[)le, to crusfi, is a far less hindrance to a 
strong mind, than that of wealth, case, powerful 
33* 



373 LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 

friends, etc. to corrupt. What is got through diffi- 
culties overcome and obstacles surmounted, acquires, 
from that very circumstance, a new and enhanced 
value. There is as much and nearly the same dan- 
ger, in receiving a sugar-and- water education, as in 
receiving none at all — in the humors which follow 
from being under-worked, over-fed, and from false 
indulgences, as in the feverish exhaustion that ac- 
companies over-work, under-feeding, and neglect. 
Young says, ' Pride was not made for man.' We 
believe leisure and indulgence, as little. We have 
all seen, even in this country, a little of the tendency 
of hereditary fortune to corrupt and to damp the 
ardor of mind necessary to acquire knowledge, so 
that we are prepared for the saying of Lord Kenyon 
to a rich friend, taking his opinion of the probable 
success of his son at the bar, — ' Sir, let your son 
forthwith spend his fortune, marry and spend his 
wife's, and then he may be expected to apply with 
energy to his profession.' 

" I had intended to conclude this lecture with a 
few biographical sketches of self-educated men in 
Europe and in our own country. But it would be 
cruel to task your patience any longer. I ought 
rather to thank you tor your patient attention, and 
pray vou to pardon my over-earnestness on the sub- 
ject, — a favorite one with me, — the diligent em- 
ployment of time, — not in amassing wealth, for that 
is our besetting sin, but in the cultivation to the 
utmost of our intellectual and moral powers. These 
sentiments and feelings I have long cherished, and 
instead of decreasing, as I approach the goal of hfe, 



LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 379 

they grow with my growth in years, and strengthen 
with my bodily weakness and decay." 

In the same lecture, with an imphed reference all 
along to the daughter, whose life had been so beauti- 
ful an illustration of his remarks, he said, " I would 
express my most ardent desire, one 1 have long felt, 
— now, alas ! wholly disinterested — that the style 
of female education, in the books they read and the 
sciences they study, should be somewhat raised and 
improved — made a httle more scientific and intel- 
lectual than it now is. The present state of society, 
and the business that now occupies females, give the 
sex more time at their disposal than formerly ; and 
he nnist be less conversant with women, or less for- 
tunate in his acquaintance than 1 have been, who 
can for a moment doubt their capacity for the high- 
est degree of mental culture and improvement. I 
have been an instructor of youth of both sexes, and 
found it as easy and assuredly more pleasant, to 
convey knowledge to female pupils, than to those of 
my own sex. And, speaking in general terms, their 
advances in education have been superior. Though 
women have no occasion to cultivate the sciences for 
a profession, they are necessarily the companions of 
professional men, and the sweeteners of their toils. 
Now, also, I speak from experience ; and it is not 
hazarding much to say, that conversation with edu- 
cated men requires mental cultivation. . . . What 
educated man would not desire a companion for his 
understanding, one who could appreciate his know- 
ledge, and, what is more, purify and reiine it? Dr. 
Johnson has said in his way, ^ It is a miserable thing 



3S0 LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 

when the convorsation can only be, whether the 
mutton shoukl be boiled or roasted, and probably 
a dispute about that/ If there are, however, men 
who would prefer an uneducated woman, there is no 
reason to fear that, after all our endeavors, a snllicient 
number will not remain. I would by no means de- 
preciate accomplishments, but we nuist remember 
they are the ornaments, not the objects of lite. 
Tiiere should be somethiiiL;- solid to ornament. Surely 
n little i;enuiiie true science is a better and a more 
enduriiii;- i;ood. It will last Ioniser than taste in 
dress, singini;-, dancini;;, drawing-, or playinj;- on a mu- 
sical instrument. I admit accomplishments add grace 
to the beauty and vivacity of youth ; but when the 
beauty, and vivacity, and youth are i;one, they are 
not quite so i^raceful, and they are at all times of 
small value, according to the domestic estimate. The 
charms of youth should be succeeded by the wisdom 
and knowledge of age. 

"' Kvery woman, it has been quaintly said, should 
either look well or talk well. One of the most agree- 
able fruits of knowledge, is the respect and impor- 
tance it imparts to age. It re(]uires an ellbrt to re- 
spect an ignorant old man ; and the case of an igno- 
rant old woman is not much better. I have often 
heard it said that learning tends to make women pe- 
dantic, alVected, and fond on all occasions of display. 
]\[y experience, and a most intimate one, is (|uite the 
other way. I have found women more given to con- 
ceal tlum to display their knowledge. This charge of 
pedantry is, I believe, often made, not because the 
accused shows too nmch leaniiiig, but because the 



LIFE OF JUDfJR SMITH. 381 

accuser is conscious lie himself has too little. After 
all, it is the very superficial education which is the 
most likely to he ostentatious. I see no contradiction 
between a well-educated female ujind, aiul true 
modesty, gentleness, and propriety of manners and 
conduct. 

" We sometimes hear it said, that the true theatre 
for a woman is home — the sick chamber — and tliat 
it is most honorable for a woman not to \)C spoken of 
at alL A good nurse, and a domestic woman, are to 
be sure two very good things ; but why should cither 
be the worse, accompanied by the higliest mental 
cultivation ? i doubt wjiether it be in our power to 
prevent women being talked about. The evil, if there 
be any, must be in wliat the talk is. I think Mrs. 
J]arbauld, Mrs. Hamilton, Miss Ilamiah More, Miss 
Edge worth. Miss Sedgwick, and many whose names 
will reachly occur to you, have no comf)laint to rnake 
that tliey are talked of." ' 

Judge Smith's second lecture was taken up mostly 
in carrying out some of the suggestions contained in 
the first. Jl(j spoke of tlie })l(3asurcs of knowledge, 
and of the power by which it has led men on through 
discourag(.'ments and trials. Tliis part of the subj(;ct 
he ilhistrat(Ml aftcjr the manner of the iiibrary of En- 
tertaining Knowledge. Among those whom he had 
personally known, he; nientioned Noah Worcester, 
*'a shoemaker Ixsfore and when he was a clergyman, 
and who attained no mean distinction ; Roger Sher- 



1 Some of these suggestions, it will be seen, are taken from Sidney 
Sinitli. 



382 LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 

manj another shoemaker, who educated himself/and 
whom it was a great treat to hear converse ; Dr. 
Nathan Smith, who, without family, connexions, for- 
tune, patrons, education, raised himself by his own 
exertions to the highest rank of physicians and sur- 
geons in our country. He educated in a short life 
thousands. Where and by whom was he educated ? ^ 
We have another countryman, a native of Massachu- 
setts also, who deserves to be mentioned at the same 
time with Frankin ; I allude to Dr. Nathaniel Bow- 
ditch. I remember the boy when he left the Salem 
town school, at the age of ten. A few such men 
would ruin our high schools and universities. I 
might name William Wirt, who has attained the 
highest rank in the profession of the law, among the 
self-educated men. It so happened, that in the vari- 
ous scenes of my life, I became acquainted with his 
early condition in the world. It is not easy to say 
in which he most excelled other men, in goodness or 
greatness. His knowledge was grafted from the tree 
of life, and all its fruity were good. 

" It must be admitted that knowledge does not 
always make its possessor virtuous and happy. But 
the tendency of intellectual culture, is to purify, civil- 
ize and elevate, and I do not believe many instances 
can be found, of men who have struggled with diffi- 



1 Judge Smith, although not related to Dr. Smith, was thought by 
many to resemble him in his personal appearance, and was sometimes 
mistaken for him. Once in New Haven, a gentleman addressed him as 
Dr. Smith. " Yes," he replied, " I am Dr. Smith, and a very clever 
man, but not the man you take me to be." Judge Smith had received 
the honorary degree of LL.D. from Dartmouth College in 1804, and 
from Harvard University in ISOr. 



LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 383 

ciilties in acquiring knowledge, and so must have 
acquired habits of industry, dihgence, self-govern- 
ment, self-denial and deep meditation, who yet have 
remained bad men. How can he possibly continue 
a slave to the coarser gratifications of sense, Avho has 
tasted the refined pleasures and enjoyments of an 
enlightened understanding ? A clarified mind is most 
likely to be accompanied by a pure heart. There 
may be distinguished scholars who are bad men ; but 
we know not how much worse they would have been, 
but for their knowledge and love of knowledge. I 
am persuaded knowledge is at the same time directly 
power, and indirectly virtue, and generally productive 
of happiness. Who w^ill say the same thing of riches, 
of honors, of sensual pleasures ? What amusement 
is so innocent, and at the same time so cheap as a 
book. I know there may be corrupting books ; yet 
I believe, generally speaking, they are far less so than 
dissipated and idle companions. Did you ever know of 
a person towards the close of life, amid all his regrets, 
grieve at the time devoted to useful studies, feel 
knowledge a drag on the heaviness of old age, or who 
would exchange it for anything but true virtue and 
the pure joy of heaven ? " 

These lectures gave pleasant and profitable em- 
ployment to many otherwise solitary hours. Early in 
the winter. Judge Smith said to a friend, " As the 
w^inter sets in, and shuts out visiters, I am obliged to 
draw on such resources as I have at command. My 
health is quite good, and I do not despair of a reasona- 
ble share of enjoyments." He said in a letter written 
29th January, 1831, a few days after the first lecture 



384 LIFE OF JUDGK SMITH. 

was delivered,"! have been very busy — never I 
believe more occupied in my busy life, but though 
occupied, it lias not been with people I love, or those 
who love me. How deHu^liirul it would have been 
to have you these long and cold evenings. My only 
pleasure has been from books. A little pleasant chat 
is a fnic accomi)animent to reading." To another 
friend, ho said : "• I have been very busy, and of 
course happy — am now returned to reading, and of 
course not very miserable. Wiiat a dreadful world 
would this be, if it were not for the troubles wc 
have ! " 

From a letter to Miss EHzabcth Hale, 14th March, 
ISfH. " ]*'riday evening I returned to Ivxeter, to my 
no home. ]'lven you, my dear MH/abeth, with all 
your imagination, cannot enter into my feelings on 
such occasions. Home with you means father, mo- 
ther, brother, sisters, friends ; but in my vocabulary, 
it means only a house — there is no association. 
* Alas ! nor wife, nor children more shall he behold, 
nor friends, nor sacred home.' I nmst not com})lain 
of the dispensations of Providence, and I do not. I 
have a reasonable share of fortitude, and bear the ills 
that iU^sh is heir to, as well, I believe, as most people ; 
but I am at least capable of receiving hai)pincss, and 
want some earthly object to engross my mind, allcc- 
tions and attentions, and to bestow on me what she 
can." 

To Miss Hale, June 1, 1831. "I am not solitary. 
A favorite nephew ' at Fraidvlin, is on a journey of 

1 The IIoii. llobiMt Smith, now a ri'i)ros(Mit;Uivo in coii_y:ri\ss tVoiii Illi- 
nois. He was the son ol" Judge Smith's brother Jolm. 



two months to the westward, ;iii(l liiis (l(;posit(Ml his 
hoiJHelioId j^ods with me, in the v;if,;Mit niche on my 
ahar — his wife — a sensihh.', wcll-edueated, livc-ly 
;uid afleetion.'it.e womnii. I t;ike th(; ^.^ood the ^^ods 
have provided for m(i inost thaid^lnlly. I must show 
her to you, and you must love h(;r, i)iit not so mueh 
as I. Vou know I ;im blessed with ;i. disposilion to 
enjoy tiu; ^^ood withoJit re()inin^', l)e(-aus(j it is not so 
permanent as [ eonid (h;sir(5." 

'rh(; summer was sp(;nt not unlinp|)ily, and the; au- 
tumn put an end to his sohlnry eonchtion. On the 
2()th September, IHIJl, he was married Ir) I'lli/aheth, 
daugliter of tlie IJon. VVilham Hale, of Dover, New 
IIam[)sliire. Wa trust it will he Ion<^ before it is [)ro- 
per to s|)eak of her with the sanifi fref.'dom with whieli 
we have spok<3n of all who, ;i lew y(3ars before, had 
l)(3lon<^ed to Jud^e Smith's hous(;hold. Throu^^h her 
inthK^nee, his home once more resumed its former 
cheerfulness, and the eleven years that remained were 
among the ha{)[)iest, if not tli(i most useful of her 
husband's life, lla seemed to have recovered what 
he had lost in his daughter and wife, and the niild 
influence of their memory was not less dear, nor less 
fondly cherished, because associated with her wfio 
had now suf^f:eed(Ml to their place. 

'J'he feelings with which .ludge Smith (;nt<;r(jd on 
this new relation, may be irderrc^d from the ()rayer 
which he wrote at the time: " () T.ord, w(j thy ser- 
vants have now entered into a new relation to each 
other, the holy estate of matrimony. W(j humbly im- 
plore thy blessing uj>on us, that W(; may faithfully 
perform the vow arid covenant betwixt us, and may 
33 



LIFE or JUlX^i: SMITH. 



forever remain, us long as wo live, in poifcct love 
and peace together, always livini^ acconlini;- lo thy 
holy law. Teach us, by thy good spirit, to bear with 
each other's inlirniitics, to love each other with a 
pure, fervent, and sincere alVection, ne\t in degree to 
that we owe thee. Grant us, if it please thee, 
health of body and soundness of iniiul, Mud ( nabli^ 
us to promote the joy and to alleviate tlie sorrows ol 
each other ; to love our panMits, rcljitives and Iriends, 
with increased alVeetion : and liiially grant, (> Holy 
Father, that this new and most intimat(^ eoniu^xion, 
by thy sptn-ial blessing, may minister abundantly to 
our eomtort and haj)piness Uviv on i^arth, and above 
all, serve the bcMltM- to prepare us for a happy immor- 
tality in thy kingdom above. Tinongh Jesus Christ, 
our Lord." * 

To Mrs. Walker, September ±2, 18;n. - I be- 
lieve I have now a good companion tor the short 
remains of my mortal life. She is too young and 
too good ; but she will be likely to grow older, and 
probably in such company worse ; but, as 1 shall 
grow better in her society, we shall approach nearer 



> A note to the town clorlc, Soptoinhcr 2, is rhnnirtoristio. •' I nnj 
about lo marry, nnd want your aid in some of the proliniinarios. 
The lady would ho sjlad not to bo torniontod bol'oro tho tinio, and thoro- 
fore wishes the puMishn\eut as private as possil)h>, so that tlu' s^-ossips 
may do tlieir wonderinn^ and ijossiping all at t>noo. Lot me Iteg the 
favor of yoii to keep this entirely to yiiurself till the '20th of September, 
and I will reward your sileuee ; give me ])ul>lishment, and 1 will see 
that it be nianaij[ed aeeonlint;; lo law." To Miss Hale, about the same 
time : " I am not aware that the publie know anything:, as yet, «)f our 
]dan. T.el them remain in ii;:noranee till the "JOlh. Then 1 promise them 
a holiday. 1 tliiidc they will siispeud all other busimvss, and lend them- 
selves entirely to us. How Haltering ! " 



LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 387 

lo each other, and thus the inequahty the world 
complains of in the match will gradually diminish ; 
and 1 sincerely hoi)e, at some distant day, she will 
follow me to heaven. Tfiere is nothing to he said, 
after this, but that I should, at the same distant day, 
be glad to sec you there, and in the meantimcj, sin- 
cerely wish you all manner of felieily. We — I am 
glad that I can now say we — shall be glad to see 
you at our home — I hope I have now a home — 
and your good husband, as soon as your convenience 
will admit. I must depend on your f>real<ing this 
matter to sister Morison and family, in the most dis- 
creet way. To the rest of our friends you need use 
less caution. You may say, I could no longer have 
supported the solitary and desolate situation in which 
Providence had placed me, especially after a door of 
escape had been opened." 

To Mrs. Sarah P. ]j. Smith, of Illinois, lie said : 
" I am no longer the desolate, solitary, dull, old stu- 
pid uncle you parted with a few weeks ago ; but a 
young, sprightly, married man, just entering on the 
active scenes of life." '' Of all men, I was the last 
made to be alone. My heart, the best part of me, 
is still young. It always has, and I am pretty sure 
always will, love female excellence of every kind." 

From this time there were few incidents in Judge 
Smith's history. The current of his life was smooth, 
and with no striking variations in its course. It was 
not like the African stream, which is lost in the wil- 
derness ; but as it went on, it was imperceptibly 
enlarged, growing deep and broad arul calm, reflect- 
ing the still over-arching heavens, from which its 



388 LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 

waters had come, and the httle tlowcrs which, on its 
borders, were drawing from it their daily I'ood. His 
life, not divorced from the stern virtues which had 
marked his character, and which still knew how to 
make themselves felt, was made up mostly of those 
silent charities, the retired thoughts and alVections, 
which How out so gracefully in the daily intercourse 
of home, in looks and tones which cannot be trans- 
cribed, in words wluch, when })reserved, like the 
last year's flowers, give but a poor idea of what they 
were, and in acts which might seem too irilling to be 
detailed, or which lose their charm when brought out 
from the privacy in which and to which they were 
born. None but those who had the privilege of 
spending some time in his family, could fairly under- 
stand liis character ; and it was curious to see how 
the feelings of these, especially the young who were 
thus brought in contact with him, were sometimes 
changed. He whom they had been accustomed to 
think of as a severe judge and censor, delighting to 
make the peculiarities of others the objects of his 
keen and merciless satire, proved, to their great sur- 
prise, to be a man of real tenderness, one to whom 
they could go in the utmost confidence, sure that all 
proper allowance would be made for them, and that 
if their general purposes were right, their little fol- 
lies and excesses would be treated with every indul- 
gence. I have never known a man to whom I 
should be less w^illing to propose anything dishonor- 
able or unjust, however it might seem to be for his 
advantage ; but if overtaken by even a serious fault, 
there was no one whose confidence I should be more 



LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 389 

ready to seek, or by whom I should be more sure of 
being kindly received. There was nothing of that 
supercilious condescension, with which good men 
sometimes view the errors of the weak, and which, to 
a quick and sensitive mind, is more painful and re- 
pulsive than any severity ; since in its assumption of 
rectitude it is certainly mingled with pride, and pro- 
bably covered over with hypocrisy. He sometimes, 
indeed, made himself and his friends merry at the 
expense of the world ; but he had nothing of the 
moroseness of age, of disappointed ambition, or a 
Pharisaical virtue. The sportive humors of a child 
could not be more free from bitterness than his wqt. 
His nearest friends were most likely to be its objects, 
especially those who were able to defend themselves. 
For instance : His wife said reproachfully to him, as 
the horse was drawing them up a steep hill, '' My 
father always walks up all the hills." " So did my 

first wife," was the reply. " There," said Mrs. , 

giving him some trifle, " that is in return for your 
abuse." " Yes," said he, " you are like the sandal 
tree, that sheds its sweetness on the axe that cuts it 
down." " Then you intend to kill me, do you ? 
When do you mean to do it ? " " Not till you are 
good ; I think you can't have better security for vour 
life." 

[A few of his humorous sayings are here inserted ; 
but when read in a book they give no just idea of his 
wit.] 

"Don't you see I am acting the pig — gnawing 
the cob from which you have been cutting the corn." 
J. S. '' You are very much at home in the character, 
certainly." 

33* 



390 LIFE OF JITDGE SMITH. 

"lie is reserved, cunning — like an old, empty 
trunk locked up. What is the use of lockiui; it, 
when tlure is nothing in it?" 

" T s;i\v ' lor sale ' written on his forehead, the mo- 
ment I sot my eyes on him." Being at anothcM- time 
asked about this same man, .Tndgx* Smith n^plied, 
in shrill and humorous tones : '' If there is an honest 
man in the world, it is he." Anc^ther distinguished 
man, who had read law in .Judge Smith's ojliee, be- 
ing accused in the public papeis of having betrayed 
his eonfidenre, by making improper use of secrets, 
which he had got from him while a student ; the 
judge laughingly said, " That cannot be true, for I 
never had any secrets for any one, and certainly no 
conlidence lor him to betray." 

" ]\fr. P. has too much the spirit of self-vindica- 
tion. He keeps alive what would soon die of itself, 
and magnifies the lies of his enemies." 

^' have acted like the devil, 

i. e. like themselves ; but they shall not rob me of 
my enjoyments ; I will be happy in spite of them." 

" On that night could not the king sleej), who 
commanded to bring the book of the records of the 
Chronicles, and they were read before the king." 
*' .Tudicious enough. The journals of our legisla- 
tures, reports of conunitt(H\s, and speeches of the 

members, would be still better opiates." '' 

has common sense and a disposition to chi- 



merical scenes; the fornuM- lies dormant, the latter 
is in lull o))eration/' " When T find a woman sillier 
than the fashion, I i)ity her, and can't help feeling a 
little contempt for her." " Drive away folly, but 



LIFE OF JUDGE SMITIf. 391 

not merely one kind to let in another." '''Asmo- 
deus was seated by my side, reading a Sunday news- 
paper, his favorite readin^^' Strange employment 
for a devil." 

" Is it true that lawyers seldom make wills of their 
own ? li the fact 1)C so, docs it not arise from the 
many foolish wills of oth(;rs their practice makes 
them ac(|uainted witli ? " Judi^^c Smith once refused 
to draw up a foohsh will. " What ! " said the man, 
with surprise, " have n't I a riglit to make such a 
will as I j)lcase?" " rerhaf)S you have ; but I have 
a right to decline being the instrument of your folly." 
He always spoke with commendation of that clause 
in Governeur Morris's will, in which, after nnming a 
certain sum for his wife, so long as she remained his 
widow, it adds, '' and six hundred dollars more per 
annum if she should marry again." 

" Have you got the rheumatism, my dear ? It 
seems to me you stoop more than common." " Oh no, 
that 's my modesty ; it is only my modesty tFiat makes 
me stoop, — though I confess it took a different turn 
in Washington. He was erect." 

Judge Smith, used to tell, in a very amusing way, 
a story to illustrate the folly of an author's giving 
away his works. " Judge Thornton received from 
his minister a copy of a sermon that he had just 
published. In a few days the minister called, and 
asked if he had read it. ' Yes.' Lie No. 1. ' How 
did you like it ? ' ' Very much, indeed.' Lie No. 2. 
^ But,' taking up the pamphlet, ' the leaves are not 
cut.' 'Ah — Oh — I — 'I borrowed it before you 
sent this.' Lie No. 3. 



392 LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 

** May 5, 1833." (I use Mrs. Smitlrs words.) " The 
seringas, after a long delay, began to display their 
white blossoms. Judge Smith announced it, by say- 
ing ' last night the seringas had a meeting ; the 
seventh vice president in the chair ; only live secre- 
taries were present, which made them fear liow they 
should get on; but at length one put the question, 
whether they should delay blooming a little longer, 
or come out the next morning ; the latter proposition 
was finally carried by an overwhelming majority.' 
This was justly ridiculing the unnecessary multiplica- 
tion of otlicers and forms, now so conunon. Per- 
haps there was no morning in which the breakfast 
table was not enlivened by some such jeu d' esprit, 
and often far better. Alas ! that there is no way to 
catch and make tangible the aroma of such wit. 
Breakfast was his favorite meal ; he liked it long, 
and good and social ; he would like to have emulated 
Lord George Germaine in punctuality — his lordship 
always entering his dining-room while the clock was 
striking the dinner hour — but bore with his wonted 
good humor, either the too much haste or too much 
delay of the operatives. When I say that lie liked 
his breakfast good, I do not mean that he touched 
the verge of what he loathed, an epicure ; but that 
he had not that stupid indiiierencc which is discour- 
aging to good housekeepers." 

E. H. S. " It may be truly said of you, when you 

are carried to your long home, that you have raised 

more laughs than any body within fifty miles of you." 

J. S. " Why yes, dear, what you say is very 

true, for those who could not laugh with me could 



LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 393 

laugh at mCj so I 'vc been very fortunate." This 
badinage was not without a mixture of truth ; for 
Judge Sinitfi used to intimate, that in laughing at 
others he broke no Scripture rule ; he only did as he 
was perfectly willing to be done by. Indeed this de- 
hght in the ridiculous was a family trait, and never 
seemed to give offence ; brothers and sisters, uncles, 
aunts and cousins, were sure to have every little pe- 
culiarity ridiculed, and placed in the most exagger- 
ated f;oint of view. Tlicy thougfit themselves de- 
scended exclusively from the Scotch, but one cannot 
help sus[)ecting, that they must either have gained 
some pure Irish blood, by some remote intermarriage, 
or else that the very air of the Green Isle had in- 
fected them witli its characteristic love of fun. One 
might go farther and say, that it was not only a 
family trait, but that it pervaded the first settlers of 
his native town. Judge Smith, speaking of their 
decidedly religious character, said that they went to 
church on Sunday, practised all that was good in the 
sermon through the week, and laughed at all that 
was ridiculous in it ; and verily we can find some 
excuse for them, when we hear quoted such a prayer 

as that of the Ilev. Mr. : " Shake this people 

over the pit of hell, but do not, O Lord, let them fall 
into it." 

That Judge Smith related an anecdote showing off 
some weakness of his own, as freely as that of an- 
other, is illustrated in the account which he delighted 
to give of his interview with R , the tory book- 
seller, at Philadelphia. Always in pursuit of books, 
he called at Mr. R.'s bookstore, and on his inquiring 



394 LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 

for some rare book, '' Sir," said Mr. R., " I perceive 
that you arc a man of letters." Valuable books were 
produced, oiVers of procuring others from his brothers 
in Endand were made, and the young member of 
congress doubtless drawn in to buy more books, and 
give larger prices than he had intended. He told 
this to his travelling companion, Mr. Ellsworth, as he 
was returning to the north. Mr. Ellsworth stated 
that exactly the same compliment had been addressed 
to him by Mr. K. on his making a similar inquiry ; 
but that the words, " Sir, I perceive you are a man 
of letters," did not make him alter his plans, nor en- 
tice him to buy a single book, that he had not pre- 
viously intended to buy. 

Judge Smith had sometimes the mortification, or 
what to others would have been the mortification, for 
he cared nothing about it, of having what he had said 
as nonsense and meant for such, reported as wit. 

Something of his characteristics, his modes of think- 
ing, and his quiet, but not inactive life, may be 
learned from his private letters. If they relate to 
small things, let it be remembered that these small 
things, in the unguarded moments of domestic retire- 
ment, are what indicate the true character. " I feel," 
he said some months after his marriage, " as if the 
old state of things had returned, and the ills that flesh 
(old flesh especially) is heir to, had been so obliging 
as to keep away for a season." 

To Mrs. Smith, 22d December, 1832. "Your 
room is comfortable, and your husband as happy as 
he can be without you ; but I am Swedenborgian 
enough to believe you are by my side, and strange to 



LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 395 

say, I have no desire to talk nonsense to such a pre- 
sence. In all senses, real and spectral, I am your 
most affectionate husband." 

To Mrs. Walker, 12th March, 1832. "Your old 
acquaintance and friend, Mrs. F. will not be long 
with us. I fear she will not see .Tune, a fatal month 
for our house. She is in an excellent frame of mind, 
perfectly resif,'ned. All her children, especially A., 
have been with us throu^^h the winter." 

To Mrs. Walker, 30th March, 1832. " Your and 
our friend, Mrs. Furbur, left us for a better world 
Tuesday evenin^^, and was buried yesterday. She 
suffered considerably for some days, but the state of 
her mind was delightful, her patience held out to the 
end. Whatever of intellect and heart she possessed, 
seemed in exercise without any display ; she was, as 
we trust, fully prepared, perfectly resigned, and has 
made a blessed exchange of worlds. We left nothing 
undone, to smooth her dying pillow. Her father (a 
very good man) and mother happened to come on 
Sunday. Eleven of the family, including her four 
children, were with us at the funeral. And a Free- 
will Baptist preacher, (her denomination,) preached a 
very good funeral sermon, from the text, * A good 
name is better than precious ointment, and the day 
of death than the day of one's birth.' She has in- 
deed left behind a reputation which might be envied 
by many of superior ability ; she seemed to me anx- 
ious to follow tlie example in dying as in living, of 
our dear departed friends. She could hardly have 
chosen better models." 

The " old acquaintance and friend " here spoken 



396 LIB'E OF JUDGE SMITH. 

of with SO much fecliiii::, had been several years a 
cook ill tlic family, and had endeared herself by her 
gentleness and fidelity at all times, but more espe- 
cially in times of sickness. She left a son, Joel Fur- 
bur, about ten years old, whom Judge Smith kept 
with him out of regard to his mother. He was an 
unpromising child, and for some time it was doubtful 
liow he would turn out. As soon as he was far enough 
advanced in his studies to join the academy, the judge 
took him in, as one of his own family, defraying all 
his expenses, and olVcring, when the time came, to 
give him a college education. This lie declined, and 
after remaining in the academy three or four years, 
he decided to go to seek his fortune in the west. 
Judge Smith provided him with funds, and with let- 
ters bespeaking for the young man the good services 
of his friends in St. Louis, and as he was leaving 
home, (October 10, 1840,) put into his hands a pa- 
per, suggesting the principles by which his life should 
be guided. This departure of one who had come 
under his roof a little child, who had so long been the 
creature of his kindness, and who was now going out 
into the wide world, without established principles, ex- 
perience or friends, was an event that touched his feel- 
ings, and gave rise to much thought and conversation 
as to the probable success of the experiment. Joel en- 
gaged first in a dry goods store, then as a teacher in a 
school, and then, under the influence of strong reli- 
gious convictions, began the study of divinity, with 
the Rev. W. G. Eliot. His character was blame- 
less ; he secured the confidence of those who knew 
him, and was treated with great kindness by tiie 



LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 397 

friends,' to whom Judge Smith had commended him. 
In 18-12, his lieahli failed ; he set out for New J'>ng- 
land, lioping once more to see his early benefactors ; 
but at the end of the first day's journey, after leav- 
ing Pittsburgh for the cast, he was put on shore from 
tfie canal-boat, as too feeble to go farther, and tliere 
died, so entirely among strangers, that it was only by 
Judge Smith's parting letter, which was found u[>on 
him, that his friends and the f)lace of his residence 
were known. 

To Mrs. Walker, May .31, 1833. "My dear Sa- 
rah : J. II. M. gave us the first information of the 
death of your mother, and the probable death of sis- 
ter Morison. Though he came away on Wednesday, 
he had not fioard of the event. I can sincerely sym- 
pathi/x' with you on these dispensations of Provi- 
dence. Both were good women, and leave those 
behind them who will long cherish the remembrance 
of their worth. I am not ignorant of the sweetness 
of such recollections ; they soon cease to be at all 
painful. Our departed friends are now happily se- 
cure from the pains and afflictions incident to life, 
and safe in that rest wliich remaineth for the virtuous 
and the good. You cannot fail to have pleasure in 
reflecting on the many kind acts you have done to 
your mother and aunt. I have always been wanting 
in such good deeds. In tfiis account, I fear the balance 
is sadly against me. It is impossible not to feel for the 
loneliness of the husbands. You must, I think, take 



• 1 Particularly by Judge Smith's nephew and niece, Mr. and Mrs. 
Cavendcr, 

34 



398 LIFK OF .lUDUK SMITH. 

your fiUhcr. S. M excels Job iiiul Moses in 

patience and meekness, and as liis daui^hlers seem 
happy, and no doubt arc so, he will get well through 
the remainder of life/' 

To Mrs. Smith, Ivveter, September 17, 1833. 
** Should you believe it, my dear Klizabeth, the 
house is, and has been still — no noise, or loud talk 
— all quiet ; this must be, because l do not talk 
when you are absent, or there is a reformation in tlie 
kitchen. l>ut then we are exceedingly dull, and all 
longing for your return to eidiven us. I fancy we 

are rather idle. A[>ropos of indolence, ^Ir. , ami 

of industry, Mrs. , with their son, called after 

dinner yesterday : it was about half after two, and I 
neglected to ask them to dine. I verily believe they 
had not — I now recollect they looked hungry. I 
invited them to stay all night, but they were bound 

for Portsmouth. Judge , with his son, also gave 

me a call, and spent half an hour, whereupon I 
praised his wife, which seemed to make him a little 
jealous. If you do not return soon, I shall be over- 
run with women. Two other women honored me 
with a call, under pretence of seeing you. I shall 

soon be as vain as . If you do not come soon, 

I shall lose the gift of speech altogether. It was re- 
marked last night, at the bank, that I was quite 
silent. Do you spend your time pl(>asantly ? Are 
you useful to your mother, and adding to your own 
health and strength? Tiien stay, and let us get 
along as we can. Your health is of more import- 
ance than all we. You see by my speaking of wo- 
men, and not ladies, that I am retrograding, and 



LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 399 

losin;^ wliut T could ill spare. 'J'lio shadow of llic 
dof^rccjs on my <Jial of WUi, is ^on(3 l)a(:kwar(l two 
years ; an<l 1 am as when you fiad eomj>assion on 
me, and pitie-d my lojieliness, and comforted me. 
J>nt still I say, do not come if you are ^^;iining health. 
I will forego present for futurf; '^ood, and es[)ecially 
yr)ur ^^ood. I have r(;ad Jay through, with increased 
(J(.li^ht. I would recommend it to your father. I 
am now irj I*ijr;kler, and he i^rows dull, at least so it 
seems. I douht whelhei Ik; is trustworthy, which is 
no small ohjection to trnvels. I have niso been look- 
in;^ over my business concerns, brin^djig up lee-way ; 
so you see your absence, though grievous, produces 
some f^^ood fruits. I>ut I would not be too rich in 
good things in which you are not ; therefore when 
you can, without leaving any duty undone, come to 
your own husbnnd — tharjk heaven." 

'Jo Mrs. Smith, December 7, J 833. ''It is my 
duty to love and care for you, and think of you all 
the time, and to dreani of you wheii asleef). All 
these things I have done, and 1 hope yc>u will only 
think of me and home, in the intervals between the 
pleasures and enjoyments your visit must afford you. 
But I have not been miserable, the iiouse is exceed- 
ingly cjuiet. If you do not return soon, I fe;ir we 
shall all lose the gift of tongues. lOliza is all soft- 
ness, and Jane as still as a mouse. If you come 
soon, you will have all the talk — cari I state a 
strorjger motivf; ? I have almost finished Peck's 
trial, ;jnd am delighted, not with the manag(;rs, but 
with Meredith, a J*hila(iel})hia lawyer, and above all^ 
with Wirt, who is truly clever and elocjuent ; you do 



400 LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 

not envy me this pleasure. It is only the gleanings 
of the field, after harvest. But now I recollect 
you enjoined the reading on me. I should have had 
much pleasure in reading many passages to you. I 
have invited your usual company for tea this evening. 
The guests will, I am sure, miss you, and so shall I ; 
for your duties will be awkwardly performed. I 
have not yet heard from Portsmouth ; but my mind 
is made up, and nothing can disturb its quiet. Still 
it is very possible I may not find it so, when the 
news comes. I can truly say I am as much con- 
cerned for your friend's success as my own, or our 
own." 

To Mrs. Smith, May 26, 1834. " My dearest 
wife : You are a dear good woman, always devising 
good things for your friends, and (if it were possi- 
ble such a woman could have any enem.ies,) doing 
good by design, and sometimes without design. 
When Joel appeared, at mid-day, I was suflfering 

marvellously under your old friend Major . He 

had begun more than twenty stories, was in the midst 
of them, had finished none, sometimes advancing 
and sometimes retreating ; he had work cut out (you 
know he was formerly a tailor,) to last through the 
day. In this time of need, enter' Joel with your 
letter. I seized it with real and affected joy, told 
the major it was from you. He took the hint, rose, 
and began his exit ; he did not stop more than ten 
times before his final departure. Your letter, there- 
fore, found me, or rather procured for me, the high 
felicity of relief from suffering. I was happy, very 
happy. I am glad its contents increased my pleasure. 



LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 401 

Your mother is in more than usual health. L. is 
about house, your father in a fair way to do well. 
Let your next letter give me a good account of your- 
self, and the measure of my joys will be full, even if 
the major should return. I am sincerely glad you 
are at Dover, because I am sure my loss will be more 
than overpaid by the happiness you will confer on 
others. Tell L. to be careful of her health. It is of 
more value than many gardens. 1 shall hear from 
Boston and Peterborough to-morrow evening ; till 
then adieu. Be careful of your own precious health, 
and while you make others happy, do not forget th6 
happiness of my best and only friend." 

To Mrs. Smith, 31st May, 1834. "My dearest 
wife : I have just sent to the office, and am glad to 
find no letter from you, — not because you do not 
always write well and affectionately, and afford me 
the greatest pleasure, but because it must give you 
some trouble, and I would have you at all times con- 
sult entirely your own health and happiness, and the 
happiness of the friends with whom you are. I 
would have these absences devoted to yourself and 
parents. I know very well you will reverse the order, 
and read parents and self. Well, my dearest, have it 
your own way. Your silence also proves that all is 
going on well at Dover. We are unusually good 
here, and the house continues very quiet. I cannot 
answer for the matter of economy. I find myself a 
little too much pressed with a better and a fuller table 
than I desire. I find this damp weather, as I always 

have, meriting John F 's pronunciation. I do not 

go out to it, but it comes to me with a vengeance ; 
34* 



402 LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 

and Morpheus takes the occasion of your absence to 
treat me ill. If he is kind to you I shall forgive 
him. Take care, my dear wife, of your own precious 
health. Perhaps you may have forgot (as your niece 
sometimes forgot to love her enemies,) that health is 
a great blessing. I don't know that it would have 

occurred to me if Susan had not made me a 

very long visit (don't envy me,) and was so good as 
to remind me of it." 

Judge Smith was never more alive to all the great 
concerns of society than at this period, and certainly 
his mind was never more active. " The great enemy 
of the mind," he said, '' as to decay, is rust. Rub- 
bing brightens, as rubbing an old brass vessel. Who 
can know after, that it is old? It is as bright as 
new — the fashion may be somewhat different." He 
had the rare faculty of exercising his mind on passing 
events, and taking a warm interest in whatever was 
deserving of attention, without permitting himself in 
any way to be drawn in so far as to disturb his equa- 
nimity. " I am," he said, " an indifferent spectator 
among the children of men. I take no part with or 
against any man. My account with the world is 
closed, and yet I am disposed to indulge no spleen, 
much less to hate mankind." This, in its large sense, 
which was that in which he intended it, was true. 
As a public man, and in coTinoxioii with public 
affairs, his account with the world was closed. 
Though things often went in a way he did not like, 
it gave him no anxious thoughts. Writing in 1833 
to a lady, who was full of solicitude about such mat- 
ters, he said, " I am not so good a patriot as you ; 



LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 403 

have felt no anxiety about the repubhe. I do not 
think well of the master or crew. If they run the 
ship on shoals, like my countryman I comfort myself 
by reflecting that I am only a passenger." That is. 
having done all that he could, he felt no longer any 
responsibility, and therefore no apprehension of evil. 
What a vast accumulation of unhappiness would be 
lifted up from the world, if his example in this re- 
spect were universal ! As the destiny of mankind 
did not rest on him, he chose not to be borne down 
by its weight. To a boy very anxious about the part 
he was preparing for a public exhibition at the 
academy he said, ^' Do your best, but if you should 
not succeed, you may console yourself by the thought 
that possibly the cause of learning may not suffer." 
There is in this remark more wisdom than appears 
on the surface. We of this generation think more of 
the results of our actions than of our fidehty ; and, 
in making ourselves answerable for that which be- 
longs to the providence of God, are impatient be- 
cause of the tardy development of the divine plan. 
In our vain and presumptuous efforts to accomplish 
the work of centuries in a day, we forget the more 
important but less conspicuous duties that are as- 
signed to us. 

Judge Smith always practised a strict economy. 
" The best motive I know of," he said, " for saving, 
is to have something to give." And the giving of 
money, without knowing or much caring how it was 
used, he considered a very suspicious kind of charity. 
He did not altogether like the modern way of doing 
so much through charitable associations. " I fear," 



404 LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 

he said, '' we shall soon have so many societies to 
promote charity, temperance, religious instruction, 
&c., that we shall lose all individual concern in these 
benevolent objects. They will soon be managed en- 
tirely by corporations — bodies without souls. We 
shall retain our party feelings, and at the same time 
commit our benevolence to the presidents, vice-pres- 
idents, and executive committees. It would be easy 
to show that corporate charities will soon eat out per- 
sonal almsgiving ; and there can be as little doubt 
the sums actually given will do less good, will reach 
fewer deserving objects. The expenses of the admin- 
istration will be more wasteful, and the selections less 
judicious — there will soon be corporate beggars." 

The variety of subjects on which he took an inter- 
est was remarkable ; and his incidental remarks had 
often the point and force of apophthegms. " Carry 
but few clothes; you can always know a foolish 
woman on her travels, by her wardrobe." " The 
way not to think too ill of the world, is not to think 
too well of it." " Who knows women better than 
shop-keepers ? If I were going to choose a wife 
among the city young ladies, I would escort them in 
their siiopping excursions." " Over-activity is a 
very high oifence in the president of a college, 
principal in an academy or common school-master, 
and, above all, in a clergyman. There is, there 
can be, no peace in a parish cursed with such 
a busy-body." " We err more frequently by doing 
too much than too little ; the latter is the better and 
the safer excess of the two." " It requires genius to 
understand genius in others." " The question is, 



LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 405 

whether we shall govern our feelings, or be governed 
by them. Persevering diligence is necessary for the 
former ; few therefore succeed." " Forced gaiety is 
never exhilarating ; the anxious and sorrowful com- 
municate from the countenance rather than from the 
tongue." " Witli all its fliults, I like the Memoirs of 
R. L. Edgewortli ; he lived so charmingly and so 
usefully with his family, so pleasantly for himself, and 
so instructively for them." *' There can be no hurry 
in obtaining accurate, thorough knowledge." " Oh, 
that we had good preachers ! I almost envy the en* 
thusiasts who are ravished by foolish sermons." 

" There is a happy contentedness which some men 
possess, and which is indispensable to the cheerful 
enjoyment of life. I am happy to believe that I was 
never entirely destitute of this valuable disposition of 
mind. I have seen some who had so much of it, 
that it served to damp their ardor for improvement." 
" My sleep last night did me good, as it doth the up- 
right in heart." " He who acts on principle, consist- 
ently, regularly, commands esteem, and can hardly 
fail of success, especially if he is moderate in his de- 
sires." " They who are so cautious as to say no- 
thing objectionable, seldom say anything good." To 
scholars: "Don't content yourselves with making 
patchwork out of the thoughts of others. Have 
ideas of your own. Other people's intellectual trea- 
sures are no more to you than their wealth. You 
may be poor in the midst of riches. Boldly march 
up to the fountains of knowledge as a hero does to the 
cannon's mouth." " I envy you your constant and 
full employment. This is better than a whole life 



406 LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 

of ease and leisure. This last is the tedium vita. 
There is no continual feast ; it is the occasional 
banquet which affords the most exquisite delight." 
" Dying exclamation of Brutus : ' O, Virtue ! I sought 
thee as a substance, but 1 find thee an empty name,' 
virtue without religion." It having been mentioned 
to Judge Smith, as a remark of Dr. Channing's, that 
the foliage of every different tree, when agitated by 
the wind, produces a sound peculiar to itself, he re- 
plied, '^ That is a beautiful thought ; I delight to see 
an attention to such things. A love of flowers, trees, 
and natural objects, in general, is a proof that all is 
right about the heart." " Anxiety is very unreason- 
able in a heathen ; and I am sure it is a thousand 
times worse in a Christian." '' Is there no vanity in 
saying, no man bears sorrow better than I do ? not, 
I trust, from a want of feeling, but from principle. 
What is our philosophy, and, still more, our religion, 
good for, if they do not serve us on such occasions ? " 
^' There is trouble, ' mea virtute me involvo ; ' shall 
we forever be found astonished at the failure of men 
and banks ? We see only the outside of things." 
^' To be good, learned, and happy — the first are in 
our power — quaere as to the last." '^ I am clear in 
it, that humility is the foundation of all religion." " I 
have been quite unwell twice this winter. Surely it 
is not necessary to give an old tenant at will, like me, 
notice to quit. We have the offer from our Lessor of 
a perpetuity in a better inheritance." Repeating the 
words, ''When shall I sleep to wake no more?" 
he added, in language more becoming a Christian, 
" When shall I wake to sleep no more ? " 



CHAPTER XIV. 

1834 — 1835. 

LECTURES ON WASHINGTON, FRANKLIN, JUDGE PAR- 
SONS NEW ENGLAND JURISPRUDENCE. 

" I HAVE the conviction," said Judge Smith, in the 
language of Sir Egerton Brydges, " that hfe is yet 
altogether joyous to me — perhaps more satisfactory 
and even more delightful than in the effervescence of 
youth and strength of mature manhood. My eye is 
as delighted with the grandeur and variety of inan- 
imate nature, and my heart is as open to all the vir- 
tues and friendships of human society." These words 
might serve as a motto for the remainder of this me- 
moir. His whole nature was never more alive, nor 
his faculties more vigorous or interested in a greater 
variety of objects. Happy in his home, his fortune 
and his intellectual possessions, he seemed more than 
ever desirous that others should participate in the 
blessings which a kind Providence had bestowed upon 
him. He exercised an enlarged hospitality. He 
gave away in charity usually a tenth and sometimes 
more than a sixth part of his income. He loved to 



408 LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 

have the young with him, that, enjoying their society, 
lie might at the same time amuse and instinct tliem. 
His hbrary was always open lor his friends to consult, 
and in the lending of books his practice corresponded 
with his words. " Nothing," he said, '' is so oilcn- 
sive as locking up books. The light of no man's 
lamp was ever yet diminished by allowing another to 
kindle his by it. What man ever regretted the free 
use of his library to poor scholars ? It would j)rove 
him altogether unworthy of such a treasure. It is 
very true that the free use of the library would in 
time wear out the books. Time without any use 
will, in a great degree, produce the same results. 
Books were made to be used, and of course worn 
out." 

Judge Smith lectured in many diflerent towns, and 
in all his lectures, whatever the subject, there was 
one paramount object. They were all jMcpaied for 
the young, and with the earnest wish to awaken and 
strengthen in them the love of industry, a desire for 
intellectual improvement, and above all, a reverence for 
moral and religious principle. Those who have read 
the last chapter, have seen how this object entered 
into the first lectures that he prepared. In 1831, he 
delivered a lecture on the private life of Washington, 
and another on Franklin. They were not for the 
learned. lie engaged in no curious histoiical in- 
quiries, and brought out none of the gossiping details, 
with which his personal intercourse with Washington 
must have furnished him, and which might have given 
a sort of factitious interest to the performance. His 
purpose was too serious for that. He endeavored to 



LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 409 

hold up to the young those great and distinguished 
men, and to impress upon them the principles of 
ihouglit and action through which they fiad become 
great. " The private character of Washington," he 
said, " is the subject of my discourse. It is not my 
intention to speak of him as a hero — the leader of 
that army which carried us triumphantly through the 
war of the revolution, nor to treat of his civil admin- 
istration, no less glorious to himself than to his coun- 
try. I was favored with a near view of Washington, 
in his higli office, during the greater part of it, and 
at its close. I now see him standing for the last time 
in the midst of the representatives of the people of 
the United States, making his last public address. 
It was a spectacle full of sublimity and grandeur. 
His communication was by speech, face to face, not 
by written message, as the less impressive usage rjow 

is How natural that the representatives of a 

great people should attempt to disclose some of the 
emotions the occasion could not fail to awaken ! . . . 
Of the body which made the answer, only six now 
remain, Gallatin, Livingston,' Madison,' Macon,' Jack- 
son, and last and least, the person who now addresses 
you. 

" But leaving the general and the statesman, it will 
be my endeavor to draw from the private life some 
useful instruction applicable to us all, and especially 
our young men. Maupertuis, in concluding his char- 
acter of Frederic the Second, says, ' many a private 
man might make a great king, but where is the king 



1 Now dead. 
35 



410 T,TFF. OF .TUnOF S^ftTTt. 

tliat woiilil mako a groat privato man ? ' "Wasliiiii^ton 
was an exception. When yon saw liiin in olliee, voii 
wonld jnononnee him in his proper sphere ; bnt when 
yon hehelil him in private life, yiMi Avonlil at once 
allow that otliee had not exalted him, still less eor- 
ru})ted him, as it docs too many of onr race." 

Judge Smith then goes on to speak of Washing- 
ton's modesty and hnmility. " I am not sure that to 
these he was not nuieii indebted for all the great 
qualities that distinguished him from other men ; for 
his low estimate of himself did not prevent his accept- 
ing, in urgent calls of duty, high, arduous and dilli- 
cult otliees, though the distrust of his abilities, and 
his innate modesty, always led him to retire when- 
ever his services could be dispensed with 

He made no claim to belong to the higlier order 
of men of genius — the men who see the light of 
truth before it becomes manifest to the rest of 
mankind. Even as the sun illuminates the hills 
while it is yet below the iiorizon, the highest minds 
are the first to catch and reflect a liglit, which, with- 
out their assistance, must in time be visible to those 
who lie far beneath them. Light did not come to 
Washington sooner than to others, but he made a 
better use of it when it did come. He walked by it 
and he made the most of it, whilst too many others, 
in the midst of the light shed by genius, walk in dark- 
ness. It was wisdom accessible to all, that wisdom 
which dwells with prudence, not genius, which is too 
apt to dwell with imprudence, that promoted Wash- 
ington and brought him to honor That same 

prudence and modesty kept his head from becoming 



LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 411 

giddy in the highest office, whilst his superiors in age 
and dignity occupied lower grades. He maintained 
at all times a strict watch over himself, as strict as 
over his man, to see that both acted well their several 
parts. 

" The same modesty and humility prevented his 
putting himself in the way of receiving those flatter- 
ing' attentions, which are so eagerly coveted by the 
vulgar great. When he put on the country gentle- 
man, he put off the general and commander-in-chief. 
It was not his practice to fight his battles over again, 
and entertain his company with a recital of the gre-at 
scenes in which he had been the principal actor. He 
mrcly spoke of the war, and still more rarely of him- 
self. His talk was of agriculture and rural affairs, 
of what would best improve the face of the country, 
its facilities of intercourse, the understanding, the 
morals and manners of its inhabitants. A few years 
afterwards, when he was called to enter upon the 
untried office and duties assigned him by the unani- 
mous voice of the nation, he did not suffer this trans- 
cendent mark of public approbation to disturb the 
just balance of his modest mind. Like a wise and 
good man, as well as humble Christian, his first offi- 
cial act was 'to supplicate that Almighty Being who 
rules over the universe, who presides in the councils 
of nations, and whose providential aids can supply 
every human defect, to enable him to execute with 
success the functions allotted to his charge ; ' and he 
quitted office with the same modest and humble opin- 
ion of himself with which he entered upon it." 
Next the lecturer speaks of Washington's coolness 



412 LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 

and firmness — " Not the courage which is so com- 
mon a virtue in miHtary men as to be scarcely de- 
serving of praise. . . . When Washington was once 
satisfied which way the path of duty pointed, he did 
not hesitate a moment longer, he boldly marched to 
his object. He was not hasty in forming his resolu- 
tions. He was cool and collected. He was the very 
opposite of rash. It was his habit from early life and 
in every business of importance, to open his mind to 
all the lights bearing on the question, and impartially 
to consider them, and then decide, and firmly adhere 
to that decision, till his judgment was convinced of 
its error. He did not waver — halt between two 
opinions. He showed his modesty and diffidence in 
forming opinions, and his inflexible firmness in carry- 
ing his well-formed judgments into execution. There 
is a striking proof of his forbearance and fortitude 
that deserves to be mentioned. I well remember 
that early in the revolutionary war, Washington was 
censured for what was called the evacuating and re- 
treating system of his military operations, and some 
went so far as to impute it to want of courage and spirit. 
You may be sure he felt, strongly felt, the injustice and 
cruelty of the charge. It was in his power to have 
vindicated himself at any moment by showing the 
true state of his army, its actual numbers, far less than 
supposed, its discipline, or rather its want of disci- 
pline, its equipments wholly unfit for offensive opera- 
tions. Among his wants were even arms and am- 
munition. But his duty to his country, devotion to 
the cause, required the concealment of all these 
things from his countrymen, that the enemy might 



LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 413 

not know them. And Washington was magnani- 
mous enough patiently to suffer reproaches in what 
most nearly concerns a soldier's honor, for the safety 
and well-being of his country. Time, and even his 
enemies, now do him that justice which his country- 
men then denied him." Washington made no pre- 
tensions to extraordinary courage. '' A report was 
at one time circulated, to magnify his courage, that 
he had been heard to say, ' that he knew no music 
so pleasing as the whistling of bullets.' When asked 
if he ever said so, he replied, 'If I ever did, I 
must have been a very young man.' I doubt much 
whether any man that ever heard this species of mu- 
sic would incline to say, ' da capo, let us have that 
tune over again.' 

" I can by no means agree with the modest Wash- 
ington in his estimate of himself, that he inherited 
from nature inferior endowments. They were highly 
respectable, and of the kind that fitted him to be a 
leader. Washington's coadjutors might have applied 
to him the injunction of the apostle Eliot to Dr. In- 
crease Mather, a century before. ' Brother,' said the 
venerable man, ' the Lord has blessed you with a 
leading spirit, as he did Mr. Mitchell, who has gone 
unto him. I pray, brother, lead us in our exercises — 
do for us all the good you can.' 

" Washington was endued with a wonderful saga- 
city, in judging correcdy of others, and was particu- 
larly successful in drawing forth their talents to the 
best advantage for the public, and, I verily believe 
never in all his life called to office an unqualified 
person, unless where, after the most impartial scru- 
35* 



414 LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 

tiny, he was himself deceived. He selected the best, 
the public i^ood his guide and aim. As to dismissing 
a qualified man from ollicc, that he might fill his 
place with one less qualified, to gratify any selfish 
motive, it was just as impossible as tliat he should 
have taken a bribe from the enemy, or sold his coun- 
try for thirty pieces of silver. 

" Ilis means of education, and his early stock of 
acquired knowledge, what is called learning, could 
not have l)een great. But his habits of inquiry, from 
early life to its close, were remarkable. lie was 
never satisfied with investigating, lie had the calm- 
ness and temper of mind best fitted for deliberation. 
Some men cannot deliberate ; they act, honestly if 
you will, but from impulse, and sometimes, alas ! that 
impulse given by cunning, interested and designing, 
and oftentimes, the meanest and worst of men. To 
conjecture in any given case, what such a statesman 
will do, you must first calculate the impelling force, 
or the influence he is under. Washington acted from 
himself. 

" 1 am inclined to think that, on a careful analysis 
of the mind and heart of Washington, sound judg- 
ment and sound discretion were the most remarkable. 
He was discreet, and his conduct regulated by prin- 
ciple in early life, at a time when youth is almost 
privileged to be rash. I incline, also, to the opinion, 
that judgment and prudence in youth are not so un- 
common as is generally supposed. Edmund Burke 
used to say, that those who did not possess prudence 
early, were aj)t to miss it late ; and if 1 may be par- 
doned the seeming vanity, of saying I agree with Ed- 



LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 415 

mund Burlie, I would say my experience and obser- 
vation confirm the remark. 

*' It is impossible to know much of Washington's 
public or private life, and be ignorant that his pas- 
sions were naturally strong, and that there was a 
quickness in his sensibility to anything apparently 
offensive, and upon a few occasions it required the 
full force of his strong mind and good principles, 
early implanted and carefully cultivated, to give him 
the mastery over himself. Such victories were, per- 
haps, as difficult as any he achieved. Till he had 
conquered himself, he never could hope to obtain a 
strong victory over his fellow-men. No man more 
largely shared their confidence in every situation in 
life. Who can sufficiently estimate the value, to his 
country, of Washington's name ? That we should 
pass safely through the war of the revolution, that 
the constitution of the United States should be 
adopted, that our neutrality, amid the terrible scenes 
of the French revolution, should be maintained, and 
that we should advance so rapidly to greatness and 
strength — who can say that any or all these great 
events would have happened without a Washington ? 
Who believes they could have happened, if Wash- 
ington's influence had been cast into the opposite 
scale ? 

" To the small number of our race, who seem to 
be born, not for themselves but for their country, and 
who fulfil their destiny by a succession of great and 
good actions, all tending to the best good of the 
country that gave them birth, Washington's name 
must now be added. He, and I trust his country. 



416 LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 

are safe. His cause has been tried, verdict giveiij 
and that judgment passed which is never to be re- 
versed 

" I have presented before you some of the dis- 
tinguishing traits of Washington ; but his character 
is not the result of any one or more of them, taken 
singly and alone. Other men may have possessed 
equal modesty and humility, as much valor and cour- 
age, fortitude, patriotism, greater endowments from 
nature, and a far more finished and complete educa- 
tion, equal prudence and discretion, equal mastery 
over their passions, equal disinterestedness, as little 
vanity, and as great devotion of heart to their Maker 
and of life to their country. But who has united 
all these qualities of the head and heart in due 
measure and proportion, so as to make one complete 
and almost perfect whole ? The virtues of other 
men are like scattered stars, appearing here and there 
on the face of the heavens. But Washington's, the 
galaxy or milky way, a great assemblage of stars, 
exhibiting an uninterrupted brightness. In his cha- 
racter is seen, not so much the display of any one 
virtue, as the possession of them all united — the 
most difficult as well as the more easy ; the good 
and the useful, presiding, animating, governing, and 
sometimes restraining the rest. For our very vir- 
tues sometimes require the curb of prudence and 
religion. 

" How was it that a man like Washington, with a 
genius not superior to thousands of his countrymen, 
with an education below the average of educated 
men in that early day, who had been hardly out of 



LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 417 

his native province, and while in it, for several suc- 
cessive years, encountering the hard service and 
perils of Indian warfare — an unpromising field of 
education — without a master to teach him the art 
of war, devoted to agriculture, and the every-day 
duties of hospitality and good-neighborhood — how 
is it that such a man could fill so great a space, do 
so much good, perform such difficult and arduous 
duties, such as no other man in any age or country 
has ever yet done ? I do not profess to be able to 
resolve these questions entirely to my own satis- 
faction ; they are too hard for me, and I am con- 
strained to repeat, what I publicly said thirty-four 
years ago, on the occasion of his death : ' When the 
Almighty, in his Providence, intends the accomplish- 
ment of some great and glorious work upon earth, 
he raises up fit instruments among the children of 
men to accomplish his ends ; and surely this was an 
occasion worthy a divine interposition.' " 

I am aware that there is little that is new in 
these remarks ; but they cannot be too often or too 
earnestly enforced. The whole lecture, as it was 
dehvered, seemed like a satire on the politics of the 
day ; and indeed what could more severely rebuke 
the manoeuvering partisans of the times, than the 
character and example of Washington ? " For he 
was honest and sincere in politics, where many men, 
God knows why, think they may accommodate their 
political opinions to their interests." 

" Suppose the law of our nature should be re- 
pealed, and this great and good man should be suf- 
fered to rise from the grave, and revisit that city, 



418 LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 

called by his name, and the country once so dear to 
his heart. To which of the great parties would he 
attach himself ? All pretend to be his disci})les, and 
to walk in his footsteps. It is dangerous to pursue 
the suggestion. Here let me stop. Each of my 
hearers may safely and silently furnish an answer for 
himself." 

In this lecture Judge Smith related an incident 
that occurred while he resided in Philadelphia, dur- 
ing Washington's presidency. " An Italian adven- 
turer, with some skill in sculpture and the fine arts, 
waited on Washington and Hamilton, requesting 
each to sit for a cast or marble bust, and for per- 
mission to set them up in the halls of their respective 
dwellings. It was distinctly understood by all the 
parties, that it was wholly the affair of the sculptor, 
and as a mean of recommending his art, and obtain- 
ing employment. The busts were finished and set 
up, and seen by all visiters at these great houses^ and 
had their share of admiration. All this was very 
well and as it should be ; but it occurred to the wily 
Italian that, with his stock of impudence, he could 
make these same busts the occasion of spunging 
some money out of these great men. He first ap- 
plied to Washington, and demanded two hundred 
dollars, as a moderate price for the work he had done 
for him. Washington considered it as a gross im- 
position, and rejected the claim, telling the artist 
he might remove the bust at any moment he pleased. 
Hamilton, viewing the matter in the same light, 
nevertheless borrowed the money and satisfied the 
claim." 



LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 419 

As this anecdote shows Hamilton only in his weak- 
ness, it is but an act of justice to add Judge Smith's 
full and deliberate opinion of one whom, in spite of 
his infirmities, he was accustomed to speak of as a 
most upright, disinterested man, and the ablest of all 
the statesmen who took a part in forming the consti- 
tution of the United States. He believed that there 
was no one on whom, whether in civil or military 
affairs, Washington depended so much ; and always 
spoke of him as the life and soul of Washington's 
administration. In a letter to John C. Hamilton, 
14th April, 1836, Judge Smith said, and the same 
views he often expressed in conversation, — " Your 
father was the least vindictive — no, that is not the 
proper word — he was the most magnanimous of 
men, and the last to press a vanquished enemy. 
When attacked by calumny, or in any other way, he 
instinctively faced the foe, and was sure to throw 
down his weapons of defence when the purity and 
honesty of his character were proved or admitted. 
What has been said of Fox (there was a strong re- 
semblance in mind and heart between the two men,) 
eminently belonged to your father, that no human 
being was ever more free from the taint of malignity, 
vanity or falsehood. No man had more ardent and 
affectionate friends than both. Both statesmen (a 
praise that does not belong to the class,) were made 
to be loved. Your father carried frankness and 
openness perhaps to excess. He scorned all artifice, 
wore no disguise, and was by far the least selfish of 
all the children of men I ever knew. He was, in- 
deed, all for the public, and nothing for himself. I 



420 LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 

hope you will be able to delineate his character with 
the utmost exactness, stating it just as it was. Any- 
thing like exaggeration would be an equal ofience 
against duty and good taste. And yet this is a com- 
mon fault among biographers. But you have no 
common character to deal with. Your difficulty will 
not be in the lack of materials, but in their abun- 
dance and richness. 

" You must, 1 think, depend almost entirely on the 
written remains of the time. I have been sensibly 
struck, in looking over the ayes and noes on the 
resolutions of censure in 1793, to find myself the 
only living member who voted against the resolu- 
tions. But, by the way, I have not heard of Ben- 
son's death. Two only, I believe, Macon and Madi- 
son, remain of the little adverse squadron, in number 
twelve — tlie same number that voted against Wash- 
ington's administration on the answer of the house to 
his last speech. Tliey would not even pay a civil 
compliment at parting. There was a propriety in 
thus coupling the two names of Washington and 
Hamilton. It was their good fortune to enable each 
other to do the most good. Their friends and ene- 
mies were generally the same ; the former had the 
greater number of false friends, and the latter the 
most devoted. 

" The length in point of time and the busy life I 
have led, do not allow me the [)leasure of communi- 
cating things which in any degree can aid your laud- 
able and pious design. I can only heartily wish you 
success. 

" I shall never forget the first time I saw your 



LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 421 

father, then a young man. It was at the camp on or 
near the Hudson, I think in 1781. He seemed a 
visiter. I spent the evening in the same pubhc house, 
unknowing and unknown, about twenty-one. The 
company seemed liighly respectable, and tlie conver- 
sation turned on the topics of the day. I was struck 
with the conversation talents, ready and entertaining, 
and with the superior reasoning powers of one who 
seemed to take the lead ; it exceeded anything I had 
before seen, and even my conceptions. When the 
company retired, on iiKjuiry I found it was Col. 
Hamilton I admired so much." 

It so happened that Judge Smith gave his lecture 
on Washington at Lowell, at the same time that Pro- 
fessor Silliman was lecturing there. As he was going 
up the steps of the hotel, after his return from the 
lyceum, Mr. Silliman, who followed immediately after, 
said with earnestness, " Judge Smith, every line of 
your lecture went directly to my heart." " It could 
not have gone to a better place," was the reply, as 
prompt as it was graceful. 

Imperfect and disconnected as these extracts from 
the lecture on Washington have been, our sketch 
of that on Franklin must be still more so. '' Every 
act," he said, " and every saying of this great man 
is a text upon which a good practical discourse might 
be written." " The secret of his success vvjas that 
he was ever awake, and suffered no opportunity of 
iniprovement to escape him. At the same time he 
did not neglect his business and calling." " When 
you look at Franklin, at sixty and seventy, and find 
him standing before kings, where Solomon says the 
3G 



422 LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 

diligent may hope to stand, and, what is far more, 
the intimate and valued associate of patriots and 
sages, the learned philosopher and the able statesman, 
you wonder and admire. Is this the poor, friendless, 
illiterate printer's boy, who had no one to take him 
by the hand and lead him up this difficult ascent, to 
this proud eminence ? But your wonder ceases, 
when you trace his successive steps in the journey of 
life. You find there is nothing miraculous in the 
case ; all is natural. To the bounty of Heaven he 
was indebted for a sound mind in a sound body. 
The rest, under Providence, was all his own." 

" On the subject of religion, I would by no means 
propose Franklin as a model for young or old. His 
notions were crude, and by no means well-considered. 
His religious notions evidently grew better as he 
grew older. He seems, in more than one place in 
his autobiography, to insinuate that free thinking 
had produced no good fruits in himself, and had 
worked badly in others whom he had taken some 
pains to indoctrinate. He says the great uncertainty 
he found in metaphysical reasonings disgusted him, 
and he quitted that kind of reading and study for 
others more useful. He was wise in this ; it might 
have ruined him." 

" As an editor, Frankhn carefully excluded all libel- 
ling and personal abuse, which he observes, of late 
years (more than half a century ago) has become so 
disgraceful to our country. What would he think if 
he lived now, when we have calumny without wit, 
served up in a style as coarse as the matter. Frank- 
lin was a scholar, wrote pure, elegant English, and 



LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 423 

took an active, decent part in the politics of the day. 
His paper now would receive no encouragement, I 
fear. Does this prove that we have made advances 
in good taste and in good morals ? Perhaps, how- 
ever, we are unjust when we charge the whole evil 
to the bad taste and wicked propensities of the editor 
and publisher. If there were no receivers of stolen 
goods, there would be no thieves ; so if no listening 
ears for calumny and slander, we should have fewer 
lying tongues and poisonous pens." 

" Franklin mentions, in his autobiography, having 
narrowly escaped, soon after his apprenticeship com- 
menced, two great evils ; the first, that of being a 
poet. He thinks he would have made a very indiffer- 
ent one, and I see no reason to differ from him in 
this opinion. The second was a taste for polemi- 
cal divinity, disputing about religion. It is not easy 
to conceive of a worse aliment for a young, susceptible 
and imaginative mind ; feeding on husks to the body, 
is nothing compared to it." 

But we have not room even for short extracts like 
these. The lecturer earnestly commends to all, the 
careful study of Franklin's Life and Works, as he 
had before with more earnestness recommended 
the Life and Correspondence of Washington.^ The 
lecture closes with an account of the famous Hutch- 
inson papers, which produced such an excitement 
here and in England. Hutchinson and Oliver, it 
will be remembered, had, in private letters, been 



1 By Mr. Sparks, of which a part only had then, (1835,) been pub- 
lished. 



424 LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 

urging the British ministry to adopt stronger mea- 
sures for the subjection of the colonies. These let- 
ters came into Franklin's possession the latter part 
of 1772, and were by him forwarded immediately to 
Mr. Gushing, speaker of the Massachusetts assembly ; 
but with a strict injunction, conformably with his en- 
gagement with the person from whom he received 
them, whose name he was not at liberty to disclose, 
that the letters should not be printed, nor any copies 
taken, but merely shown to some particular persons for 
their satisfaction only. Judge Smith, after giving some 
account of these papers, and of the insult to Frank- 
lin, the 29th of January, 1774, says ; "• I was then a 
boy at school, but well remember the effect it pro- 
duced on the public mind. I have no doubt it served 
to brace up many a doubting mind, and nerve many 
an arm for the combat which quickly followed." The 
whole account is too long to be copied here ; but the 
closing remarks on the conduct of Dr. Williamson, 
who boasted of having procured thei papers for Frank- 
lin, and of the patriots of Massachusetts, for the use 
they made of them, deserve to be borne in mind by 
all public men. " There are circumstances," he says, 
*' which would lead us to doubt the accuracy of Dr. 
Williamson's story. I was well and intimately ac- 
quainted with him, and have no doubt that he was 
capable of doing the act as related. But be this as 
it may, I do not find myself quite able to approve the 
act. According to his own account, he practised a 
deception, and the difference between telling a lie 
and communicating or acting one, is hardly worth 
regarding. Indeed, the lie direct is the more manly 



LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 425 

of the two ; deception in any form is not a high- 
minded vice. For the same reason, the conduct of 
the late Governor Hancock and some others, in this 
transaction, as it has been stated, seems far from com- 
mendable. You recollect the letters were forwarded 
by Dr. Franklin, in strict confidence that no copies 
should be taken, yet they were copied and printed. 
It was thought the public good required it. I believe 
the public good requires nothing which is not honest 
and honorable. When the letters were read in the 
house, all felt the desire to see them in print ; but 
how to evade the conditions, not to take copies or to 
print, was the problem to be solved. Three courses 
lay before them ; first, strictly adhere to the terms ; 
second, boldly violate them, and publish ; third, evade 
the restrictions by some ingenious trick. The latter 
course was adopted. The restriction as to taking 
copies, was predicated, it was said, on the idea that 
no copies had been taken anywhere. Mr. Hancock 
rises in his seat and produces copies of the letters, 
and one account says, declaring that they had been 
sent to him from England ; another, that it was so 
stated by others. Hancock's copies were doubtless 
taken here, and to be used as they were in fact used. 
All now agreed that the restriction was virtually re- 
pealed, and the condition no longer binding ; the 
letters were already public, and there was no harm 
in adding a little to the publicity. The trick satisfied 
the scruples of all, and the newspapers had the let- 
ters. 

" I do not say that all concerned intended to act 
a base part ; I know that with honest politicians, if 
36* 



426 LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 

there be now any. such class, strong party feeling, 
vehement party zeal, are apt to weaken the force of 
conscience, and counteract the sense of honor, or at 
least to pervert the judgment for a while, and lead it 
to approve the doctrine, that the end sanctifies the 
means. And we have sometimes had the pain to 
see a man applauded for a political manoeuvre, 
which in truth ou£2fht to have consi£2:ned his name to 
infamy and dishonor. On the occasion which has 
called for, and I hope justified these remarks, an 
honest man, and especially if he happened at the 
same time to be a Christian, Avould have said, ^ It 
would seem, in my judgment, useful to publish these 
letters, for the good it will do. Hutchinson and 
Oliver have justly merited our reprobation, but it 
cannot be done without a breach of confidence ; it 
must not, therefore, be done. Heaven, if it intends 
to save us, will send deliverance from some other 
quarter. If we perish, we perish. If we lose our 
country and our freedom, let us at least preserve our 
faith and our honor.' " 

The lectures which cost Judge Smith the most 
labor, and which would have been most hkely to sur- 
vive, as a lasting monument of his ability and learn- 
ing, were never completed, nor indeed brought, to 
such a state of forwardness as to be of any service 
to others. They were on the jurisprudence of New 
England, a subject in which he had always been 
interested, and to which, as appears from some of 
his papers, he had paid particular attention some 
years before he left the practice of his profession, it 
being, as he said in his letter to Mr. Livingston, his 



LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 427 

" knitting-work to put down the New England law, 
where we have allowed it to take the place of the 
English." In 1816 he said, " I am inspired with 
zeal to examine New England histories, memoirs, 
records, with a view to her jurisprudence." He 
began to prepare them in 1836, and left behind many 
sheets of notes and references ; but only a few pages 
were written out in full. 

" I propose," he said, " to make some remarks on 
the science of jurisprudence. I shall confine my ob- 
servations to the laws of New England, as she was 
before the separation from Great Britain ; and here 
Massachusetts will be chiefly regarded. She is justly 
entitled to this distinction, on account of the priority 
of her setdement, and still more on account of the 
superior character of her first and present inhabit- 
ants. I shall hope to be pardoned, if I indulge 
freely in observations and remarks not strictly, per- 
haps, connected with the New England jurispru- 
dence. This science embraces the constitution, as 
well as the laws of. the country or place, and, limited 
to New England, it comprehends the nature of her 
connexion with, and dependence on, the parent 
state. The common law she brought with her, as 
her birthright ; and the statutes and ordinances she 
framed for herself. Restricted to the narrowest 
limits, the subject is an exceeding broad one, almost 
entirely new, and would call for more time, more 
study, and far more talents than I possess. 

" It is impossible here not to be reminded of the 
loss, an irreparable one it must be felt by all who 
would prosecute these inquiries, in the death of Mr. 



428 LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 

Parsons. He died in 1813. He had made consid- 
erable progress in his studies before the war with 
Great Britain. He was highly favored in a most 
able instructer, and at his death was certainly better 
skilled in the New England law, than any other man 
on either side the Atlantic. It is much to be re- 
gretted that he left behind him so little of the great 
stores of the law peculiar to New England, which 
his diligent and discriminating mind had been col- 
lecting and digesting for nearly half a century. It 
was my good fortune to become acquainted with 
this truly great man and learned lawyer at the 
time I commenced my law studies ; I cannot suffer 
this occasion to pass, without expressing my heart- 
felt acknowledgments of his kindness. He was ever 
ready to assist such as manifested a desire for in- 
struction. This part of his character, I believe, has 
not had that justice done to it which, in an eminent 
degree, it deserved. I will not say that Theophilus 
Parsons was the greatest lawyer that ever lived ; but 
I risk nothing in saying that he knew more of the 
New England law, which existed while we were 
British colonies, than any other man that has lived, 
or perhaps that ever shall live. Some of his learn- 
ing has been preserved in the reports ; but much the 
greater part of his, and nearly all that of the law- 
yers and judges that went before him, is now irre- 
trievably lost to the community. 

" It is a great error to suppose the New England 
common law, properly so called, from the advances 
made in all branches of knowledge, is of no import- 
ance in New England at this day. For what is the 



LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 429 

common law of which we speak ? It is made just 
as the English common law was made ; a collection 
of the general customs and usages of the commu- 
nity ; maxims, principles, rules of action, founded in 
reason, and found suitable to that first condition of 
society ; if not created by the wisest and most 
favored, sanctioned and approved by them. Here, 
every member of society is a legislator ; every 
maxim, which by .long us^ge acquires the force of 
law, must have been stated, opposed, defended, 
adopted by rulers and judges, slowly and at first 
timidly, but so acceptable that all approve. If the 
custom be of a more doubtful class, again debated, 
criticised, denied, but finally confirmed and estab- 
lished. These principles, after all, may not be wise 
and salutary maxims ; but they have all the wisdom 
that the people of all classes (every man having 
precisely the weight and influence he deserves,) can 
give them. Farther. advances in knowledge and ex- 
perience may demonstrate their unfitness and in- 
utility ; then they will be modified, and silently 
changed. The legislature can abrogate this law, as 
they can the rules of their own making. But it 
would be well for the people if they would first take 
the trouble to understand it. No man acquainted 
with the common law can look into our statute-book, 
and not see that the framers of the statutes, in many 
cases, were ignorant that the common law contained 
precisely the same provision ; and in many cases, a 
provision different and better adapted to the wants of 
society. The new law must be repealed at the next 
session, because not congenial with the manners, ha- 
bits, sentiments, feelings and wants of society." 



430 LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 

May not what Judge Smith has liere said of Judge 
Parsons's knowledge of the New England law, be 
applied now to himself ? It is one of the melan- 
choly thoughts, connected with the death of such 
men, that they carry with them so much knowledge 
of a kind tiiat cannot be restored. Belonging to a 
period reaching so far back, and growing up under 
influences which never can exist again, they acquired, 
almost without an eflbrt, in the study and practice of 
their profession, information which no research, after 
they are gone, can gain with anything of the same 
full understanding. 



CHAPTER XV. 

1835 — 1838. 

JOURNEY TO THE SOUTH AND WEST LETTERS 

ORPHAN CHILD INTERCOURSE WITH CHILDREN 

WIT. 

Judge Smith's occupation at liome was much the 
same as it had been for several years. He saw more 
company and had in his own house more variety than 
at any time before. In 1833, he had taken William's 
daughter, then eight or nine years old, into his family. 
Besides her, he had usually in his family another little 
girl, a niece of Mrs. Smith's ; and generally some 
young lady still farther advanced, whom both he and 
his wife took great pleasure in helping forward in her 
education. There was also Joel Furber, of whose 
short life a sketch has already been given. These 
young people, of course, attracted others of their own 
age. There were few houses, in which were to be 
found more of the life and merriment of youth, and 
the youngest among them all, he who certainly con- 
tributed most to their diversion, was the white-headed 
old man, who had seen the snows of nearly fourscore 



432 LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 

winters, and who, more than forty years before, had 
been not unworthily associated with the eminent men 
of the nation. Usually, when the old man goes out, 
a restraint is taken oft'; but it was not so there. The 
loudest peals of laughter were an evidence of his 
presence ; and during his absence it was felt that no 
small part of the animation of the house was gone. 

To Mrs. Smith. '' Boston, Jan. 3, 1836. I have 
been to the theatre two nights. ' It 's a lie.' It is 
not, but sober truth. At the first ^ I was the princi- 
pal actor ; at the second, called the Tremont Theatre, 
Mrs. Wood (the late Lady Lenox,) as Amina in La 
Somnambula, — 1 was charmed. Everybody says I 
grow younger, and I partly believe it ; for no opera 
ever pleased me more. . . . No man can be in 
Boston without thinking of money. Boston grows 
grander and grander. It increases in everything but 
humility. I verily think, at least hope, my stock will 
enlarge. ... I have dissipated as little as possible ; 
but this is a tempting place, and I must quit it. I 
must overcome temptation in Sterne's method, by 
running away. You may expect me Thursday, and 
loving home better than ever, and chiefly its princi- 
pal cliarm. Apropos of wives, is soft and 

gentle to his good wife. He seems almost a new 
man. How useful sorrow is in this world of ours ! 
May you have none of it. Strange conclusion from 
my premises. Man is a strange creature in reason- 
ing as well as in going to theatres." 



1 The Odeon, formerly the Federal-street Theatre, where he had been 
givuig a lecture. 



LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 433 

To Mrs. Smith. '' Exeter, April 19, 1836. ' On 
looking back for thirty years, I see too many faults in 
my own hfe to be mindful of the faults against me.' 
Now, if you do not apply this to me, it will serve to 
convince me that T am not humble enough. Truly, 
it is going a little beyond me. I see some faults of 
my own in the retrospect, but some also in my 
friends, a very few excepted. Sir James Mackintosh, 
too, goes beyond me when he says, ' * * * has a 
distaste for me. I think the worse of no one for 
such a feeUng. I often feel a distaste for myself. 
Quaere — should I esteem my own character in an- 
other person ? ' Are you, my dear wife, as good and 
as humble as Sir J. M. ? 

'^ You know we did not greatly admire M.'s Life 
of Sir Thomas More. M.'s son says, ^ He wrote it 
con amore, and has produced one of the most pleas- 
ing and instructive pieces of biography in the English 
language. There are few works in which the moral 
ends of biography are better answered, or from which 
the reader rises more pleased and improved.' If the 
young fellow of Oxford is right, you and I must 
resign the chair of criticism. Are we too fastidious ? 

" You perceive this is the anniversary of Lexing- 
ton battle — sixty-one years ago. My remembrance 
of the feelings of the time, and even the state of the 
weather — the beautiful and forward season — is ex- 
tremely vivid. All this proves two facts ; first, that I 
am a great patriot, and, secondly, a close observer of 
nature, and, I can add with still greater truth, a great 
admirer of you, though you can boast of httle more 
than half the years of this by-gone event. 
37 



434 LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 

" I don't know how it is, Elizabeth ; but I am 
more regardful of health when you are absent ; I am 
more abstemious and take more exercise, and yet I 
would not have you stay away on this account, unless 
you will engage to do likewise." 

''Wednesday, 6, A. M. Up at 5 — have not 
strutted, but swept my hour on the stage — venti- 
lated the room, and am ready to say good morning 
to you on your couch — am about to finish Sir 
James. 

" I enjoy Sir James the less for your absence. 
Your interruptions serve only to enhance the plea- 
sure. What is the reason that there are so few 
books, which please me so well at the end as at the 
beginning ? Is it that the author tires ? " 

To Mrs. Smith. " Saturday noon, April 23. My 
dear Elizabeth : Mrs. W. says, ' Write to Mrs. S.,' 
and yoit know how readily I obey commands of your 
sex. It is my delight to do their will. I was cheer- 
ed, an hour ago, on finding my door open, and ente7' 
Mrs. Walker. I have read two or three chapters to 
her out of Sir E. Brydges' autobiography ; very en- 
tertaining. She has consented to dine with me, so 
that you see I am in a fair way to be happy. I hope 
that the only cause which can prevent your being so, 
does not exist — the suffering of your friends. 

" It is a fortunate thing for me that most things 

amuse me. Mr. entered last evening with a 

groan at the hall door, and gave me an hour in har- 
mony tlierewith, and left me very happy. ... I find 
Sir E. B.'s book entertaining ; am glad I bought it. 
This is just the time I need such refreshment. I am 



LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 435 

in the midst of examining a knotty law case. It does 
not trouble me ; but it is well to have good intervals. 
I see a storm a brewing, but value it not. Mrs. W., 
to whom I have just read so far, says, ' What spirits 
you have ! ' Why not ? Heaven has been good to 
me ; why should I not be cheerful and happy ? To 
know that you are so, would add something to the 
mass." 

In the summer of 1836, Judge Smith, with his 

wife and Miss , made a journey, by way of 

Washington and the Virginia Springs, to Kentucky 
and Ohio. " At Washington," he said in a letter to 
his friend and neighbor, Dr. Benjamin Abbot, ^' I 
saw a good deal of the two houses of congress. The 
senate answered my expectation ; but I. H. had not 
then quit. I was made acquainted, as far as the time 
would allow, with most of the members. I must say, 
the house of representatives fell below my expecta- 
tions, which certainly were not high. A vast number 
of the members have the cacoethes loquendi the nat- 
ural way. I am not an enemy to good speeches ; 
the most of those I heard were of an inferior quality, 
and never did I see so little attention. Indeed, there 
could not be said to be any hearer except myself, 
and, if you will pardon a bull, I could not hear. 
This state of things must end in some way. B.'s 
dumb legislature is a thousand times to be preferred. 
I think, just at this time, the house is not in favor 
with anybody. I have not seen their friends, if they 
have any. 

" The country is grand ; but the government not 
so good as the people." 



436 LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 

To J. H. Morison, Washington, 23d May, 1836. 
^' I am bound for the capitol. It is said there is to 
be a flourish of trumpets this morning in the senate — 
the trumpeter, Mr. Preston, of South Carolina, and 
the subject relating to the independence of Texas, 
now that she has conquered Santa Anna. This is 
believed this morning. Surely the age of miracles 
has not passed away. She will soon be admitted 
into the union. What, think you, will be the influ- 
ence of New England among forty states, in 1856? 
Take away Webster and one or two others^ and what 
is her influence now ? " 

May 25. " I have been twice to the president's — 
like him. He cannot reason — had an argument 
upon instructions. He is all wrong — holds to the 
Virginia doctrine — is unconvinceable. Frobatum 
est ; [for] my arguments failed." 

Judge Smith was pleased with the attentions he 
received from the prominent men at Washington ; 
but the most gratifying incident in his journey was a 
visit to Mr. Madison. When in congress together, 
and afterwards through the active part of their politi- 
cal lives, they had taken different sides, and were 
strongly opposed to each other. For a time, at the 
close of Washington's, and the commencement of 
Adams's administration, their political feelings were 
such, that there was no personal intercourse between 
them. But in the latter part of his life, Judge Smith 
always spoke of Mr. Madison as a man of great mo- 
desty, learning, ability and moral worth. He believed 
that Mr. Madison had been at one time too much 
under the influence of Mr. JeflTersonj whom he never 



LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 437 

ceased to consider as an able, but crafty, visionary, 
unscrupulous politician. They had not met for nearly 
forty years. 

At Orange court-house, Saturday, May 28, " Af- 
ter much difficulty procured horse-cart, two dray 
horses, passenger and driver, each sitting on a kitchen 
chair, to carry me over the road to Charlottesville, 
four miles, and then one mile to Mr. Madison's, — 
passed through gate, wheat and rye each side, to 
front of lawn — house showy — grand pillars in pro- 
jection — introduced myself to Mr. Todd, Mrs. M.'s 
son. He said his mother would be glad to see me, 
and so it proved. Slie gave me a friendly and hearty 
welcome. We went back forty years ; she remem- 
bered me as much as I did her. Mr. M. had been 
very ill — too much so to see company, but said [he] 
would see me — found him on couch and much as 
Mr. V. B. had described him to me — no body — 
all soul — powers of mind good — memory — aston- 
ished to find him so much like forty-five years ago in 
the tones of his voice, though more feeble — turn of 
expression — talked well — said, glad to see me — 
he and Mrs. M. had always noted the newspaper ac- 
counts of me, and had the kindest feelings — had 
always considered me as acting from principle, and 
therefore always cherished towards me the first kind 
and friendly feelings. I frequently proposed to with« 
draw, but he expressed a desire to detain me — 
wished to hear me talk. I reminded him of our first 
acquaintance, when [I] was his scholar, courting his 
conversations, and thanking for his kindness. Though 
he does not talk poUtics, he expresses opinions on. 



438 LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 

political subjects and men, but with the caution and 
mildness always natural to him. 

*' They urged me to stay to dinner — three — but 
I excused myself, and took leave after two hours. 
He desired his respects to Mrs. S., and regretted, as 

did Mrs. M., she could not come He spoke 

highly of Mr. W. and Clay." 

Mrs. Smith, in her journal, adds to these minutes, 
which were hastily taken on the journey ; " Judge 
Smith returned delighted with his call — found Mrs. 
Madison still handsome, hospitable and elegant, and 
Mr. M., though much emaciated, weak, sick and lying 
on a couch, still all himself in memory and mind. 
J. S. spoke of the Lyceum lectures he had been giv- 
ing ; Mr. M. intimated that they would not only be 
useful to those who heard them ; but likewise serve 
as a pabulum to his own mind. He was so thought- 
ful as to ofter letters of introduction to Mr. Levy, the 
present possessor of Mr. Jefferson's Monticello, and 
to Professor Tucker of the university of Virginia. 
These letters were written by Colonel Todd, and 
then brought to him and received his approba- 
tion." 

From Judge Smith's Diary, 9th of June. " A few 
miles after starting, we found ourselves stuck fast in 
a slough on the side of a hill. The men passengers 
got out and did what they could. Mr. H. escorted 
the ladies a mile or more to the post-office. I re- 
mained much exhausted and sick in the stage. It 
started and in a very few rods capsized, and I was 
buried in the ruins, considerably bruised in my left 
shoulder and head, I was soon dug out, and ac- 



LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 439 

quired much renown for my silence and patience, two 
virtues as doubtful as any I boast of." 

To Mrs. Walker. '' White Sulphur Springs, 
Greenbrier county, Virginia, June 16, 1836. My 
dearest Sarah : You were always dear, and now in 
the midst of the Alleghanies are dearer than ever. 
.... The higher we ascend, the better we love one 
another. So be it ; for this is the greatest earthly 
good. Did I inform you at Washington, that, by 
the advice of Mr. Clay and other wise men, we had 
abandoned the Mississippi. I limited our tour to 
Lexington, Frankfort, Louisville and Indiana, return- 
ing through Ohio. 

" I expect little from the waters of these famous 
springs ; but the air is delightful in these regions, and 
the exercise a little more than we could desire. I 
cannot describe the roads better than by saying, it has 
rained the last twenty days, and our way, which lies 
over rocky hills and mountains, is the passage for the 
torrent — no bridges — the soil (in all not mountain) is 
red clay, and might now be moulded into bricks with- 
out any change of color. Our team can neither 
draw us up the mountains, nor out of the sloughs ; 
but the views are grand — everything new and sub- 
lime. We do not regret our fatigues — are always 
ready to encounter fresh ones. We are constandy 
making new and often agreeable acquaintances, and 
are laying up food ' for many years to come.' How 
like this is to the language of the man that built the 
greater barns ! The conclusion must apply almost 
literally to some of us ; but I hope not to all. I 
wish you were with us to help us to enjoy. How it 



440 LIFE OF JTDGE SMITH. 

would multiply all our pleasures ! . . . . I have no 
painful anxieties about liome, not even about our 
friends in old Exeter ; they are all safe under the 
keeping of the great and good Keeper." 

In passing through Virginia, Judge Smith's atten- 
tion was of course often called to the subject of slav- 
ery. '- Met Mr. P., of Georgia. lie is right on the 
slave question, — says they are well treated and 
happy, and better every way than our Xew England 
lower order, and as capable as whites of intellectual 
cultivation. Still he is an enemy of slavery, and 
more so than the New England men, who couie from 
the north and work them harder than the natives — 
wishes the Xew England abolitionists would point out 
a cure for the evil.'' 

From a letter to Dr. Abbot. ^' Slavery here as- 
sumes its most favorable aspect. I do not say it is 
charming and delightful, but it is extremely mild. I 
have heard many Virginians regret that Dr. Channing 
could not spend a year in the ancient dominion. They 
admire the man, but not his book on slavery. I agree 
with tiicm in both." Dr. Channing had spent a year 
in the '' ancient dominion," and remembered all his 
life the kindness which he had received from slave- 
holders ; but neither this, nor the mild treatment of 
the slaves, could close his eyes to the monstrous injus- 
tice of buying and selling human beings who had been 
guilty of no crime. 

Judge Smith returned from his journey in good 
health. '• 1 cannot but think," he said, '* that I have 
gained some knowledge in my tour, which, if it do 
not profit others, will increase my own enjoyments. 



LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 441 

This is selfisli ; but does any one wonder that old 
men are so ? The world are much disposed to con- 
sider them as already out of it." 

Private letters are almost the only memorials of the 
next year. 

To Miss Lowe. " Exeter, August 1, 1836. Your 
letter, my dear Mary, was a very good one, both in 
matter and manner. I engage, if you persevere, that 
you will soon be among the best letter writers. But 
care and pains are indispensable. I know these are 
not pleasant to a girl just entered her teens ; but I 
know, also, that the fruits are excellent. ^ Deus ipse 
hand facilem esse viam voluit ' — you are a Latin 
scholar, you know. Take my word for it, my dear 
Mary, you will in due time have your reward. I 
take a great interest in your success in Hfe, and espe- 
cially at this period, when you are forming a cliarac- 
ter, which may last as long as you last — longer than 
I shall live to witness it. I am sure you have the 
capabilities, and need nothing but your own exer- 
tions. At your time of life I made many mistakes, 
and wasted much time, but idleness and inattention 
were not among the number of my youthful errors. 
I was happy in a daughter, who was in these things 
all I desired. I know full well the import of the 
words, when I say that it is in your power to make 
your parents exceedingly happy, by merely making a 
good use of your time and of your talents, which are 
very good ; but they will avail you nothing without 
cultivation. Your heart is also, humanly speaking, 
good ; but the best mind and the best heart will prove 
no blessing, unless you do your part. I do not mean 



442 LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 

to flatter you, Mary, but rather to encourage you in 
the right improvement of your time and talents. The 
path of hfe is not all strewed with roses ; there are 
thorns and discouragements and sacrifices to be made, 
but there is also abundance of pleasures to be en- 
joyed — great and enduring pleasures. I sincerely 
wish you a full share of these." 

To Miss Ellen Smith. " Exeter, November 3, 
1836, Thursday evening. I was delighted to find, 
by your letter, that your father was well, and re- 
quired no waiting on. It has always been my opin- 
ion, and experience has served to confirm it, that old 
people are naturally (I hope not necessarily) disa- 
greeable. Everybody that can, shuns them ; those 
w^ho owe them duties must pay them. But surely 
what is done from a sense of obligation must be in- 
finitely less agreeable to the receiver, than what flows 
from love and the kindly affections. How strong, 
then, the motives not to be over-exacting, and to draw 
as little as possible on the fund of filial duty, but 
rather to deserve more than they are willing to re- 
ceive even from children ! 

"Providence has wisely ordered, that old people 
should have abundant leisure to make themselves 
amiable. They have little else to do. I have, be- 
sides, little doubt that the bienseances as well as the 
moral affections are cultivable, that any man may 
grow in the love-inspiring virtues, as well as in the 
moral. 

" It gave me great pleasure to see that your good 
father's bodily and mental powers were so very good. 
I can hardly give him credit for sincerity in the esti- 



LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 443 

mate he puts upon them. This over-low estimate — 
not very common with the Smiths — cannot surely 
have been intended as an apology for indolence, 
making no efforts to improve ! Human nature is said 
to be too prone to indulgence. Age, then, may be 
suspected. But whatever our powers now may be, 
they surely will diminish by non user ; such is the 
order of Providence. In all this, I must be under- 
stood as addressing you, who I hope will one day be 
old. It is true you are very well now, and I love 
you dearly, but at the same time I have no objection 
to your being still better, and at finding myself 
obliged to love and esteem you still more. 

" I am quite well, and hope you will keep me so 
by writing us often ; and when we are tired of that, 
visiting us and abiding with us, till we grow heartily 
tired of each other. Till then I am sincerely yours." 

To Miss Lowe. " Exeter, April 20, 1837. We 
have been just reading in Sparks's American Biogra- 
phy, (Vol. VII.) Miss Sedgwick's Memoir of Lucre- 
tia Maria Davidson, who died when a little older than 
you are. She had great talents, but with less would 
have been loved by all who knew her. We intend 
Jane shall read it, and be what she was ; but post- 
pone it till you come, that we may have two Miss 
Davidsons instead of one. There is a fine young 
man just come to the academy from Buffalo. He 
looks a Httle like a certain relative of mine about his 
own age. I know well this will have no influence 
in hastening your return ; but I am sure you will 
like him. His father places him in some measure 
under my care, and I want some discreet person to 
aid me." 



444 LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 

To Miss Hammond. ^'May 6, 1837. How I 
long to have last autumn return, and you in your old 
seat ! I think I may then defy any one to show a 
happier circle — a small one indeed, but kindred 
spirits, loving and being loved. Earth can give no 
more ; indeed, this must be one of the joys of 
heaven." 

On the 14th of July, 1837, new interest in hfe was 
given to Judge Smith by the birth of a son to bear 
his name.^ '^ At this moment," he said in writing to 
a friend, " there is not a speck in my horizon, and I 
only want some dear friend, by which 1 mean you, 
to rejoice with me." 

To Miss Ellen Smith. " Exeter, 30th November, 
1837. My dearest Ellen : When I sought your cor- 
respondence and friendship, (for uncle and niece are 
nothing,) I did not know their value. Perhaps as 
many on full knowledge prove better, as those that 
prove worse on trial. This is a good view of human 
nature, and I cherish it. Among my blessings, (and 
they are not few or small,) I reckon you, my dear Ellen. 
You must live and be happy as long as I live, and as 
much longer as it may please God. I was not quite 
prepared for the news of S. M.'s ^ death ; but for some 
time I have not thought he would continue long. 
The chief value of his life was for his daughters. 



^ From the Family Record, in the hand-writing of J. S. " Friday, 
July 14, 1837, 1 P. M., filius natus fuit, quem Deus a malo defendat ; 
baptiz : a Rev. J. Hurd, 22d October, 1837, nomine Jereniia}, anglice 
Jeremiah." 

2 Judge Smith's brother-in-law, Samuel Morison, father of three deaf 
and dumb daughters. 



LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 445 

They particularly need a father or brother. Tlieir 
friends must supply their places. I wish I was nearer 
to them. Living in the village, as they must, it is indis- 
pensable that some trusty person should provide them 
fuel and provisions. I am sorry, my dear Ellen, for 
this new draft on your benevolence. I know nobody 
whose society will do them so much good as yours 
and Nancy's, and nobody more disposed to contribute 
to the happiness of others. I almost envy two such 
fellow-laborers in making others happy. A blessing 
must attend those who serve such pure-minded and 
excellent girls. Their mother will look down from 
heaven her thanks. My Elizabeth regrets the dis- 
tance between her and her favorite nieces. When 
the pleasant season comes, she will hope for a long 
visit from them — their comforters and helpers. 

" Elizabeth and Jeremiah are as you would wish. 
The boy is a source of pleasure to me far exceeding 
my anticipations. 1 pray heaven it may continue. 
You know I am not one of those whose future 
prospects are gloomy. ' Enjoy the good the gods 
provide you,' is a good Christian as well as heathen 
maxim.' " 

To Miss Hammond, 19th December, 1837. '' I 
am engaged in my intervals of leisure, in reading 
Southey's Cowper ; and admire the man and the 
work more than ever. When the pleasant season 
comes, you must come, my dear Sarah ; ' all that is 
here is tliine, together with the hearts of those who 
dwell here.' We will read Cowper's Life and Task 
together, and meditate upon them till we three be- 
come as good as he. I did not intend to be guilty 
38 



446 LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 

of rhyme, but to deal in sober truth, which is in har- 
mony with all my feelings at this moment." 

6th March, 1838. " I have continued reading 
Cowper, and admire him more and more. His let- 
ters — I have read them all — compare well with 
Horace Walpole's.' If this were fifty years ago, 1 
should almost hope to imbibe some of his spirit. 
Don't think I mean his morbid distemperature of 
mind ; a despairing frame of mind is of all things the 
most remote from my nature. I am always, if not 
happy, at least free from the glooms, see things in 
their best light, and when trouble comes, as come it 
will, bear it the best way I can. Cowper was, by 
nature, gay and lively, willing and capable of min- 
gling in the joys and sorrows of his associates ; but 
there may have been at the bottom a little of the 
leaven of insanity, and it was sadly inflamed by his 
religious creed, and the training under his ghostly 
director. I admire his letters more than his poetry, 
though some of that is very good ; and it adds much 
to my enjoyment of Cowper, that Elizabeth goes with 
me, and beyond me. She has something of his or- 
thodox faith, whereof I have none." 

In December, 1838, there was received into 
Judge Smith's family an orphan child, and, says 
Mrs. Smith, " the recollection of his patience and 
gentleness towards that little girl, are redolent of the 
odor of perfect charity. She was not quite four 
years old ; the delicacy of her health made it expedi- 



1 To his niece, J. S. says: "C.'s letters I rank next to Horace Wal- 
pole's ; that is, second in the world of letters." 



LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 447 

ent that she should sleep where there was a fire, and 
from a dislike to inflict on domestics the labors grow- 
ing out of a deed of charity, she was finally estab- 
lished in Judge Smith's chamber. She was restless, 
and a very bad sleeper ; but at no time did he com- 
plain of this annoyance, and never once did he pro- 
pose her removal to another room. On the contrary, 
the sight of her seemed to double the enjoyment of 
his own comforts. When he saw her put to bed at 
night in her comfortable flannel night-gown, or dressed 
in the morning before the cheering wood fire, he 
would look at her with so much pleasure, and exclaim 
again and again, ^ a brand snatched from the burning, 
a brand snatched from the burning 1 ' Her father 
having died of delirium tremens, and her mother be- 
ing a common street drunkard and beggar, it was 
hoped that early culture and freedom from tempta- 
tion would keep off this dreadful taint ; and she al- 
ready gives promise of being a useful, energetic and 
honest domestic." 

Judge Smith had quite an uncommon power of 
interesting children. A lady, at whose house he was, 
asked her daughter, about three years old, to go to 
another room for her father. " I will," she said, 
" when Judge Smith is not here." A little fellow, 
just beginning to talk, was so entertained by him that 
every time he paused, the child called out, " Man talk 
more, man talk more." Another little girl with 
whom he had been playing and talking some time, 
being asked to go out with her mother, said " No, 
no ; I want to stay here. I want to hear what he 
will say next." In his talk and by his gestures, tones 



448 LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 

and actions, he presented the most ludicrous combina- 
tions and contrasts. But it was only those children, 
who had a quick perception of the humorous, and 
who could distinguish as by instinct, what was said 
in jest from that which was said in earnest, who could 
understand him. I remember the utter astonishment 
with which he was listened to by a little boy who had 
been brought up in the literal observance of the truth, 
and whose moral sensibilities were of course unfavor- 
ably affected by such conversation. 

His intercourse with the young generally had no 
tendency to increase their reverence for conventional 
forms, or the idols of society. And occasionally his 
manner of speaking of the best observances and men, 
was such as to throw an air of ridicule round them 
in the minds of his associates, before they had 
learned, in his more serious moments, or from a 
more intimate acquaintance, how deep and real 
was his respect for them. This trait, which, from 
its liability to be misunderstood and perverted, is 
not to be recommended for imitation, has belonged 
as a characteristic to some not only of the most up- 
right, but the most devout of men. No one ever 
possessed it in a greater extent than Thomas Fuller, 
the author of the " Worthies of England," and with 
all his levity of speech, nay, through it all, where 
shall we find a more sincere and beautiful spirit of 
religious reverence, a more truthful and hearty respect 
for the good men of his own and all former times ? 
The language of Sir Thomas More upon the scaflbld, 
must savor of irreverence and impiety to those who 
can see religion only in solemn looks and tones ; but 



LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 449 

where was there ever a more devout or devoted 
spirit ? And old Hugh Latimer, who could not help 
punning as they were preparing him for the stake, 
found no subject too sacred for the cheerful, mirthful 
and humorous flow of his devout and Christian soul. 
It might have been irreverence in another to talk 
as these men talked, under circumstances of such 
awful solemnity ; but in them it was only the exercise 
of a gift, which they had received from God, and 
which they rejoiced to employ in his service. No 
one, I think, can read Izaak Walton's Lives, or gain 
admittance into the sanctuary of George Herbert's 
poetry, without seeing how much of that wit, which 
some would condemn as levity, may enter into the 
conversation of the most holy men, and how grace- 
fully it may minister even at the altar of their devo- 
tions. 

But there is no gift of the mind which, especially 
in its connexion with any religious duty, is more a 
stumbling-block to some well-meaning, and even sen- 
sible men. Religion among us has been taught to 
clothe herself in a sanctimonious garb, rather than in 
the beauty of holiness ; social respectability walks on 
stilts, and unless treated with a formal respect, tum- 
bles to the ground. We are, with the exception of 
owls and monkeys, the most serious people on the 
face of the globe. Our very amusements have an air 
of seriousness, and, as on the Athenian coin, the im- 
age of an owl is required to give us currency in soci- 
ety. This owHsh wisdom and solemnity, with all the 
empty pretensions that are sustained by them, Judge 
Smith regarded with aversion and contempt. It was 
38* 



450 LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 

ill reference to thoin lluit ho said, " I know the world, 
and despise it. 1 say this not from pique ; for I 
have personally no com})laints to make ; but from 
conviction that it is just and meiited." '' One thing I 
must confess, I have now in my old age less deference 
for the opinion of others than I had in earlier life ; 
not that I think better of my own wisdom, but less 
of that of others ; I do not think more of myself, but 
more for myself." There was no way in which he 
so nuich exercised the keenness of his wit, as in ex- 
posing tlie foolish claims to distinction, (whether ibr 
family, wealth, learning or station,) that men are con- 
stantly setting up. It was his especial delight to pull 
ofl' the masks which hide so much emptiness and 
vanity. At the same time he was no Cynic, nor did 
he doubt the existence in the world of high attain- 
ments, and great and noble qualities. He was (]uick 
to recognize, and glad to acknowledge and resp-ect 
them. The innocence of childhood, the purity and 
confiding tenderness of w^oman, the manly virtues 
which dignify the statesman, and still more, the hum- 
ble graces which adorn the Christian's life, were sub- 
jects on which he delighted to dwell, not as abstrac- 
tions, nor as the product only of a former age, but as 
qualities which he had seen and known, and which 
were still to be found among men. No one could 
be less a misanthrope, or farther from cherishing that 
barren skepticism incarnated in A^oltaire, which grins 
at human virtue, and withers the soul in which it 
dwells. Nor was he like Goethe, in whose clear and 
passionless mind the follies, vanities, hopes, virtues, 
vices and crimes of man may sec themselves as in a 



LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 451 

glass, which continues itself untouched by sympathy 
for human weakness or sufTering, with no yearning 
for human aflfection, or longing for a divine love. He 
was however, almost entirely free from anxiety, and 
it might probably be said with truth that during the 
last twenty years of his life, he never lost an hour's 
sleep from the apprefiension of evil, whether of a 
public or private nature. 



CHAPTER XVI. 

1838 — 1839. 

YOUTHFULNESS OF FEEL- 
ING HABIT OF COMPARING THE PAST AND PRESENT 

INTEREST IN NEW BOOKS ; IN THE YOUNG ; IN 

EDUCATION INTERCOURSE WITH YOUNG LADIES 

LETTER TO MISS ROSS. 

Judge Smith had now entered his eightieth year. 
For seven or eight years after he left the bar, his 
" crazy machine," as he called his body, had been 
steadily mending, and, till after the lapse of nineteen 
years, his constant good health was interrupted by 
fewer ill turns than during any period of his active 
life. His mind Iiad lost nothing of its strength, nor 
his feelings anything of their elasticity and freshness. 
His eye kindled as brightly, his humor played as 
sportively, his sense of enjoyment was as keen, and 
his power of imparting it as ready as in the prime of 
his manhood. His nature, disciplined by suffering, 
and then cheered by an unlooked for amount of hap- 
piness, had been greatly softened ; and his passions, 
instead of subsiding, as they too often do, into the 



LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 453 

fretfulness of an imbecile and comfortless old age, 
were gradually transmuted into affections which grew 
more pure and confiding as he approached his end. 
In fact, as was said of another, " he never deterio- 
rated ; like the setting sun, when his course was 
over, he departed in full majesty." 

He undoubtedly owed much to his natural temper- 
ament and constitution, but far more to the spirit and 
habits which he had taken so much pains to culti- 
vate. As he always woke bright because he went to 
sleep bright, so his fresh and joyous old age was but 
the product of what had gone before. First and 
greatest among the sources of happiness which he 
had cherished, was his unwavering religious trust. 
" Surely," he said, '^ people really and truly under the 
influence of rational principles of religion, must be 
happy. Some people's religion fails to regulate their 
passions and affections. It does not produce all its 
good fruits ; it is not quite practical enough." In a 
letter to his wife, then absent from home, he says, 
" I am lonely because reading (just now) engages my 
mind and heart less than in days of yore. I shall re- 
joice to see dear Ellen, but have no ground to ex- 
pect her. Sometimes the best things come unexpect- 
edly upon us. I think my forte is taking patiently 
whatever comes, and bearing well inevitable evils. 
They are then less evils, and may even prove bles- 
sings in disguise, and all sorts of blessings are wel- 
come. Do not shorten your stay on our account. 
Remain as long as you are sure you soften pain or 
confer pleasure, and be sure to come to us in good 
health." 



454 LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 

Writing from Boston, he says, '^ I have suffered 
nothing but pleasure. My taste for the great has, 
and my love for the good has not, diminished ; so 
you may safely trust me abroad for a few days. 
The day is eminently delightful ; I hope you enjoy 
it. Is it not criminal to suffer the good things of 
heaven to fail of producing the happiness intended ? 
All this only proves that my feelings at this moment 
are of the pleasurable sort. I wish they were trans- 
ferable ; then yours should be at least in equilibrio." 
These are extracts taken almost at random from his 
letters, to show the contented, and (may I not say) 
the Christian spirit, that ran through his life, and 
which, by its quiet cheerfulness, protected him not 
less from the little annoyances, than from the great 
calamities which he had known. 

As an old man, he was not exacting or complain- 
ing. He had had his day, and was willing to be set 
aside. '^ It is not easy," he said, " to deal with two 
generations of men. Sufficient for one man is one 
generation. How rarely an eminent statesman, lawyer 
or politician, maintains his high standing beyond 
thirty years 1 Why do we blame the world for 
turning old age and infirmity adrift, and retaining 
the young and the active, who can serve them 
better ? " " How natural that the old should not be 
beloved ! They are every day gradually withdrawing 
their confidence, and it is confidence, unsuspecting 
confidence, which begets love." Quoting from Lady 
Mary Wortley Montague the words, " I don't know 
how I look, as it is eleven years since I saw my figure 
in the glass, and the last reflection was so disagreea- 



LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 455 

ble, that I resolved to spare myself such mortifications 
for the future, and shall continue that resolution to 
my life's end," he adds, " Strange that a woman of 
sixty-eight should be ashamed to show a wrinkled 
face. We are to avoid the infirmities of age, but not 
be mortified at them." '• Where," he asked on his 
eighty-second birth-day, " where is the world I knew 
fourscore years ago ? If Methuselah had been on the 
stage when William the Conqueror landed in Britain, 
he might have been alive now, to tell us all about 
William and his successors." 

Judge Smith never fell into that too common vice 
of age, exalting the past at the expense of the pre- 
sent. He gratefully acknowledged that he saw pro- 
gress in almost everything ; in the arts and sciences ; 
in our benevolent institutions ; in legislation and the 
administration of justice ; in the general aspect and 
condition of the country ; in furniture and dress ; 
and he believed also in virtue and knowledge. " It 
would be something new," he said, " to speak of im- 
provements in dress; but since gentlemen, and, I 
may add ladies, have been more engaged in storing 
the inside of their heads with knowledge, a less ex- 
pensive and more simple mode of adorning the out- 
side has prevailed." 

'' I remember to have seen, when a student at law 
in Salem, a letter written a century and a half before 
by a member of the family, who enterprised and 
happily achieved a journey to Boston. He had been 
so good as to reheve the anxiety of his friends by a 
line from the half-way station at Lynn, saying all was 
yet well, and his hopes sanguine of a successful ter- 



456 LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 

mination of the journey, and promising to write as 
soon as relieved from its fatigues. This letter was a 
fulfilment of the promise, and made doubly welcome 
by the information that all their friends and relations 
in the capital had been blessed with good health. 
He gave his friends in Salem a rich treat in the ac- 
count (which indeed constituted the bulk of the 
letter) of the Thursday Lecture, from which he was 
just come ; who preached, the text and heads or 
principal divisions, with the more important subdi- 
visions, and the uses for examination and improve- 
ment." 

" The transition from roads and carriages is natu- 
ral to the farms, fences and houses of the persons 
who have occasion to use them. On all these sub- 
jects in our country north of the Delaware, I can, as 
early as the close of the revolutionary war, speak 
from some actual knowledge. There were some 
good farms, and some good farmers ; but these only 
served to show in a worse light the general aspect of 
the country. The agricultural books were mostly 
English, better calculated to mislead than instruct ; 
farming knowledge was merely traditional, and of 
course mixed up with the ignorance and prejudice of 
a more rude state of society. I shall never forget the 
appearance of Varlo's Husbandry, which was brought 
in a wagon or horse-cart from Pennsylvania, preceded 
a few days by the agent with his subscription paper. 
The gentlemen round Boston, and some few in Ports- 
mouth liberally subscribed. When the book came, 
it was soon discovered to be the compilation of an 
ignorant adventurer, got up to sell. There was then 



LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 457 

no American Farmer or New England Farmer, no such 
treatises as those by Deane, Peters, Bordley, and 
many others now in everybody's hands. The gen- 
tlemen farmers of that day rather brought disgrace 
on science than recommended it. Their farming, 
remarkable for nothing but the expense, was justly 
ridiculed. All things are now changed. No man 
can ride through the country without being cheered 
on his way by the sight of good farms, well cultivated, 
and no less gratified by the intelligence and skill of 
the cultivators." 

Judge Smith saw even greater improvements in 
more important matters. " Among the charities of 
this charitable age, there are some every way worthy 
of honorable mention ; hospitals for the sick and lu- 
natic, asylums for the blind, and schools of instruction 
for those whom heaven, in its righteous dispensations, 
has deprived of the gifts of hearing and of speech. 
When I take up a newspaper, and find a rich man 
remembering the forgotten,' and hearing the cry of 
the dumb who cannot speak for themselves, I am 
ready to thank God that I live in a Christian world. 

" It is said we like the things of our youth. It is 
not so with me. I prefer the present times in most 
things. While we live in the world, we must take 
in some degree the color of the world as it moves 
along. The Persian epitome of the history of man, 
' they were born, they were wretched, they died,' is 
not true of us. They were born, they daily advanced 
in civilization, virtue and happiness, they died and 



1 Burke. 
39 



458 LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 

were transferred to a new region, where more perfect 
enjoyments awaited them. Can we improve in every- 
thing but morals ; in all things without, but nothing 
within ? 

'' The little we have sketched suffices to show the 
perfectibility, or rather the improvability of our race. 
What though we cannot here reach the summit ? 
There is a pleasure in climbing, especially where 
every step increases the extent of the prospect, and 
adds something to the rational enjoyment of life. 
Little you and I can do, but the least mite [cast by 
each] into the treasury of knowledge will add some- 
thing to the general stock." 

This was Judge Smith's habitual way of comparing 
the past and the present, and it is easy to see how 
much it must have added to his cheerfulness, as he 
found himself borne along so far upon the stream of 
time. He did not allow himself to fall behind, but, 
in his intellectual and social habits, kept up with the 
world. He knew, except through translations, very 
little of the continental literature of Europe ; but 
kept himself well acquainted with what was going on 
in England and the United States. He read the 
principal reviews, and added to his library the most 
important works as they came out. Many rare and 
curious books, which he did not care to purchase, 
were furnished for his perusal, through the kindness 
of his friends ^ in Boston and Cambridge. He en- 



1 He was j^reatly indebted for favors of this kind to Mr. Charles Folsora 
and Mr. Joseph E. Worcester. Writing to one of them for some work, he 
says, " If it cannot now be had (at the bookstores,) I should be glad to 
get it on loan from some rich man who has read, or who never reads his 



LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 459 

joyed reading over again the books he had read in 
youth. "1 am reading," he said in 1839, "Lady 
Mary Wortley Montague's Works, the new edition. 
It dehghted me half a century ago ; re-perusals of 
such works always give me double pleasure — new 
and old." But he also enjoyed works that were en- 
tirely new in their modes of thought and expression ; 
as for instance, the works of Thomas Carlyle. He 
read " Sartor Resartus," when it first came out, and 
found himself as wise as before. But he saw that he 
was dealing with a man of genius ; and though he 
never became reconciled to the style, his numerous 
quotations from " the History of the French Revolu- 
tion," show that he had at length learned to enjoy 
exceedingly the wit, the pungent satire, and vivid 
descriptions of that eccentric, but original writer. 
His Reviews, as they came out, he enjoyed still more. 
" I continue," he says, " the reading of Carlyle's Sir 
Walter Scott. The pleasure increases, and I hus- 
band it as well as I can, reading but a page or two 
at a time. I have taken up Emerson's Concord,' and 
admire it mightily. I shall profit by it." Bancroft's 
History he read with interest, but his common-place 
book contains severe comments on its doctrines ; not 
more severe, however, than his animadversions on 
some of the other popular literature of Massachusetts ; 



books ; " and many books were in this way lent to him. His own 
library, which had been carefully selected, contained rather more than 
four thousand volumes, and cost about ten thousand dollars. 

' An Address at the Centennial Celebration at Concord, Massachu- 
setts, by Ralph Waldo Emerson, which Judge Smith considered much 
the best thing of the kind that he had then seen. 



460 LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 

particularly some of the orations and reviews which 
were so much admired in their day, but which he 
regarded as inflated specimens of oratory ; wanting 
in purity of taste, and still more in sound, practical 
judgment. In literature, as in society, there was no- 
thing which he could not better endure than mere 
empty show. He liked works of amusement, and 
was willing to read nonsense, provided it were will- 
ing to pass for nonsense. But the solemn common- 
places, which are every man's property by right of 
possession, swelling out in a fine drapery of words, 
and passing themselves off as something new and 
great, were his utter aversion. So too, much as he 
loved to follow an ingenious process of thought when 
there was substance in it, he had no respect for the fine 
theories, which, whether got up for self-adulation or the 
reformation of the world, make such a din in the ears 
of our modern society. They gave him, however, no 
uneasiness. The world had not been built, nor did 
he believe it could be destroyed, by such means. 

Thus in his studies he found food for daily thought ; 
and instead of lingering, as the half-forgotten relic of 
a former age, he went along a living man in the 
midst of a living world. " I have felt," he said, 
'' nothing of that tedium which persons accustomed 
to the activity of public or professional life frequently 
feel in retirement." Having the best thoughts of past 
and present times within his reach, he could always, 
when other resources failed, retreat to his library, 
and there forget himself. " We have had," he wrote 
to his wife, " no company, and sometimes I have been 
solitary. I then turn afresh to my book again. O 



LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 461 

blessed books ! What would life be without you ? A 
solitude indeed." In another letter he says, '' Ptejoice 
with me at this seasonable rain. It is quite refresh 
ing to your Exeter fields. I enjoy reading such days 
exceedingly. I hope they have plenty of good books 
in the other world." So he went on to the end, as 
eager in the pursuit of knowledge, and finding as 
much enjoyment, and, with his richly stored mind, 
more instruction in books, than when, as a boy, he 
went, after his day's work was done, three or four 
miles on foot, to borrow some stray volume which he 
had heard of. 

Judge Smith's interest in the young was one of 
the most beautiful features of his character. His 
love of children, his power of interesting them, and 
his intercourse with the younger members of his own 
family, have been already spoken of; and mention 
has been made of his attention, when on the bench, 
to young men just entering the profession. In his 
situation as president and treasurer of Phillips Exeter 
Academy, which offices he held from 1828 to 1842, 
he was brought a good deal into connexion with the 
students, and it was always a great pleasure to him, 
to encourage and help forward those who were dis- 
posed to make the most of their advantages. For 
several years he used to have some half a dozen 
students, to dine and take tea with him once a week. 
He always rejoiced to see in his house a lively, in- 
telligent boy, and entertained him with as much 
vivacity and politeness as if he had been a man of 
his own age and standing. His house became, there- 
fore, a favorite resort for many young men. An ex^ 
39* 



462 LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 

tract from the letter of one ' who had then just en- 
tered the academy, and whose early death has fixed 
its everlasting seal on a life of peculiar beauty, shows 
the feelings with which many came from his house. 
" This week has been the longest I ever spent. I 
think, from the time father left till Saturday noon, 
I have not kept the run of the days of the week ; 
but thought they would never get to a stopping- 
place. When I came from school Saturday noon, 
after being frightened out of my wits by so many 
strange faces and dignified looking teachers, and 
found father gone, and Mr. M. gone, and not a single 
familiar face, every body and every thing looking 
strange and unnatural, and feeling too that I cared 
for nobody, and nobody cared for me, I must say I 
felt more homesick than I ever expected to be. I 
was really rejoiced to see a mosquito, although he 
did come to bite me ; he looked like an old friend, 
and I was more glad to see him than I ever was to 

1 Robert Swain, born at New Bedford, February, 1823; entered Har- 
vard University in 1841 ; died at Harrisonburgh, Va., the 15th of June, 
1844. It was my privilege to know him through years of intimacy, first 
as a pupil and always as a friend. His character, chastened and puri- 
fied by a life of suffering, but at the same time a happy life, presented 
an assemblage of virtues exquisitely blended, and unfolding, as death 
approached, into an almost celestial beauty. He had, what is perhaps 
the rarest of all endowments, that simplicity of mind and heart, which 
is so inseparably connected with jturity of taste, soundness of judgment, 
and rectitude of conduct, and which, when joined to a delicate mental 
organization, and shining out through the lowly and lofty graces of a 
religious faith, is among the fairest of all the beautiful things which 
God has placed upon the earth. His life was one of continued progress ; 
each year witnessing some new and brighter manifestation of character ; 
till his whole spiritual nature had become so developed, that, though he 
died at the age of twenty- one, his death could not seem untimely to 
those who knew him best. 



LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 463 

see a mosquito before. But in the afternoon 1 went 
to walk in the woods, and coming back stopped in at 
Judge Smith's to pay my tuition, and found that an 
excellent place to cure homesickness — they were all 
so kind and pleasant, and such a remarkably pleasant 
house and grounds ; and then I suppose Mr. M. 
would say the young ladies were so agreeable. At 
any rate, I have not had an attack of the disease 
since, only occasional touches now and then. Yes- 
terday afternoon I spent at the judge's too. He in- 
vited George H., who rooms with me, and whom I 
like very much, C. H., another boy who boards at 
this house, and myself, up there to dinner. We 
spent the afternoon and evening very pleasantly. 
The judge is the most entertaining old man I ever 
saw." 

Judge Smith's patience in the prolonged visits of 
stupid young men, or of boys who, from a feeling of 
diffidence and awkwardness, could not get up to go 
away, was of the most exemplary kind. I remember 
one in particular, a heavy, dull fellow, with good in- 
tentions indeed, but none the more lively on that 
account, who used to call often upon him, and who 
never seemed to know when to depart. He was 
poor, and had the most persevering wish to get an 
education. As a trustee of the academy, Judge 
Smith uniformly voted against assisting him from the 
funds of the institution ; but he submitted to his 
visits, gave him all the advice he could, furnished 
him with money, invited him (as he was boarding 
himself,) to come often to his house at meal times ; 
though he was all the while dissuading him from his 



464 LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 

attempt to get that sort of education, for which 
nature so evidently had not designed him. He hon- 
ored his perseverance, and felt for him ; but could 
not in conscience encourage him in his undertaking. 

It was always particularly Judge Smith's delight to 
aid young men whom he found struggling with the 
narrowness of their means in the pursuit of know- 
ledge. He, who prepares these pages, is but one of 
those who, when poor, friendless, and inexperienced, 
were permitted to lean on him, and who will not 
cease to bless God for such a friend at such a time. 
It was not what he gave, liberal and timely as were 
his benefactions, that awakened their gratitude. The 
manner in which he did it made them feel, not as de- 
pendents on his charity, but as children admitted to 
his confidence, and receiving these tokens of his 
affectionate regard. The richness of his instructions, 
descending into the minute branches of learning, 
which at the beginning are so essential to the future 
scholar ; the ease with which he entered into the 
feelings of the young, charitably sympathizing even 
with their extravagances ; the delightful conversations 
by which he introduced them to the great men of a 
former generation ; the intense desire for knowledge, 
virtue and an honorable distinction among men, 
which was kindled by their intercourse with him ; — 
these higher obligations, which every ingenuous mind 
rejoices to acknowledge, hardly permitted them to 
feel the sense of pecuniary obligation, which so often 
injures both him who gives and him who receives. 

There was no subject in which Judge Smith 
through life, but especially towards its close, took so 



LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 465 

decided an interest, as the education of the young. 
One of his earhest efforts in his native town was to 
improve the pubhc schools. We have seen how ear- 
nestly, as a judge, he endeavored to impress upon 
the community a sense of their importance. In his 
later lectures, the diffusion of knowledge and virtue 
among the people was still the subject uppermost in 
his thoughts. But he was not one of those narrow 
men, who would build up our academies and common 
schools at the expense of the higher institutions of 
learning ; and, notwithstanding the shining excep- 
tions that are given, he did not believe it wise to 
enter upon the studies of a profession without- a 
college education. To a young man prepared for 
the sophomore class, but rather advanced in years for 
entering college, who asked him whether he should 
not begin the study of the law then, he replied, 
" Without a thousand times more knowledge of you 
than I possess, I could not advise. Your age is 
against the college course. If your object at the bar 
is money, then the sooner you enter the better ; little 
preparation is necessary. If content to carry your 
professional character to a moderate height only, you 
may do very well without college. If your aim is to 
be a lawyer in deed as well as name, — to be a libe- 
ral, scientific expounder of the law, and to enjoy it, — 
you can hardly have too much preparation. Six 
years of preparatory studies before the study of a 
profession, are little enough. I should prefer three 
years' college and three years' law studies, in almost 
any country office, to five years of the latter, even at 
the Cambridge Law School. Twenty-five is a good 



466 LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 

age to commence practice ; it was mine, and I think 
early enough. But after all, you must be your own 
adviser. The mark you aim at in life must decide. 
I have no doubt you can be what you will." 

With his deep interest in the education of the 
young, particularly of those in destitute or moderate 
circumstances, it was to Judge Smith a source of 
great regret, that the expenses at Harvard University 
should be so great as almost necessarily to exclude 
such young men from its advantages. It does seem 
both unreasonable and unjust, that an institution en- 
dowed with funds to the amount of more than half 
a million of dollars, should set so high a price on its 
instructions, that its charities, (and all its funds are 
charities,) can be of use to few except the sons of 
rich men. The great body of those who seek a lib- 
eral education, the sons, for instance, of intelligent 
farmers and mechanics, are thus in a great measure 
shut out from its walls, and the college is deprived 
of the presence and example of those, who, bringing 
with them less expensive habits, and having every 
inducement to improve themselves, would kindle the 
zeal of others, and give character to the institution, 
and who, returning home when they had finished 
their course, would awaken through the country a 
new interest in behalf of the college. Its well-being, 
thus identified with the cause of education through- 
out the community, would soon come to be more 
generally cherished and advanced. Instead of being 
a sort of high school for the sons of rich men in Bos- 
ton and the neighboring towns, it would become a 
true university, entertaining, with an enlarged hospi- 



LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 467 

tality, those who have only character, talents and a 
thirst for knowledge to recommend them, and by 
means of them dispensing its instructions through the 
whole land. On none would the influence of such a 
state of things be more happy than on those classes 
who now usually resort to it for their education. In 
taste and knowledge, in its instructions and intellect- 
ual requirements, such an institution can hardly raise 
itself too high above the community at large ; but it 
can hardly open its arms too wide to receive and 
cherish all, of whatever class or condition, who would 
aVail themselves of its advantages. If its present 
funds cannot be so applied as to lessen the evil at 
Harvard University, is it not a matter worthy to be 
commended to those who would be among its best 
benefactors ? 

Judge Smith was so much interested in this mat- 
ter, that, when without children, it was his intention 
to leave a considerable part of his estate for the foun- 
dation of scholarships at Harvard University.^ About 
a year before his death, he was applied to through a 
common friend, by a gentleman of large means and a 
larger heart, for advice respecting the endowment of 
an academy, in the hope that it might "render essen- 
tial service to some poor boys of future time." After 

1 His plan was to leave, say, an annuity of one thousand dollars for 
six scholarships — this sum not to be doled out as a reluctant or 
degrading charity, hut as a reward and encouragement to the most 
deserving among those who might not otherwise be able to support 
themselves. At the Abbot Festival, it was proposed by many of Dr. 
Abbot's pupils, to endow a scholarship of this kind to be called by his 
name. No more fitting monument could he raised to the memory of an 
honored instructer. May it not yet be done ? 



468 LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 

specifying some particulars which it is not worth the 
while to introduce here, Judge Smith said, as appears 
from a rude draft of his letter, " I would not have it 
limited to the blood or kindred of the donor, or to 
natives of particular places, but to bright boys within 
certain ages. My experience is in favor of fourteen 

to twenty. I wish Mr. would extend his views 

beyond charity scholars, in and during their stay in 
the academy, and do, on a large scale, what I once 
intended on a small one — found several scholarships 
in Harvard College ; the academy trustees to select 
from their students at the beginning, and the college 
to have a voice in continuing them. This is the best 
of all charities ; the object the best and the most use- 
ful, and the most likely to be faithfully executed. 

^' It would add, I really believe, to my joys in 
heaven, if haply I may find myself there, to look 
down on a number of fine young men, increasing in 
knowledge and virtue on my honest earnings. This 
good feeling sometimes almost excites regret, that 
other objects command the whole of my scanty 

means. Have the goodness to express to Mr. 

my best wishes for his health and happiness here and 
hereafter, and to believe me, as in the many by-gone 
years, your sincere friend and obedient servant." 

The sort of interest Judge Smith took in young 
ladies, may be seen in part from his letters already 
given. The three, to whom he was most attached, 
and with whom he corresponded most freely, were 
Miss Ellen Smith, the daughter of his brother Sam- 
uel ; Miss Lowe, a niece of Mrs. Smith's, and Miss 
Hammond, of Boston, a young lady whom he first met 



LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 469 

while on his journey to the south in 1836, who was 
afterwards the intimate friend of Mrs. Smith, and 
came more than once to watch with the judge during 
his last illness. No kind of social intercourse can be 
more pleasant, or more useful to all concerned, than 
this union of youth and age — the old man cheerfully 
imparting his gathered stores of wisdom, and enriched 
in return by that which softens his austerity and keeps 
alive his better nature. He becomes, then, in his 
affections, like the evergreen on which, as the old 
leaves drop off, new leaves are formed, and it contin- 
ues crowned with greenness through the year. Some 
further idea of what this intercourse was, may be given 
by further extracts from Judge Smith's letters. 

To Miss Ellen Smith. "Exeter, 14th March, 
1839. My dear Ellen : I am sure you will be sorry 
I have so good excuse for not writing. I have been 
for the last ten weeks more than usually indisposed. 
My cough in the first half was quite distressing. It 
is now quite gone ; but I am less relieved than at any 
former period within my remembrance. My cheer- 
fulness did not forsake me. I longed for you to 
nurse me, partly on account of your own merits, and 
partly because it would relieve Elizabeth, who had 
too much on her hands. The dear Jeremiah burnt 
both his hands on the cook-stove sadly ; he bore it 
like a man, and is now quite well and happy. Eliza- 
beth has been much as usual, but is now a good deal 
indisposed. Mary Lowe has come to our relief, and 
we shall all, I hope, do quite well very soon. How 
have you spent the winter ? I hope not unpleasantly. 
I believe you are happy on less means than most 
40 



470 LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 

other people. By means, I must refer to externals, 
for in the better sort of good things you abound. A 
disposition to be pleased, especially when Ave have 
plenty of duties to perform, is, next to religion, the 
best of heaven's gifts. 

*' I long to hear particularly of our Peterborough 
friends, and you are my only reliance. Your last 
letter was admirable in gossip and kindness ; and re- 
member you must not change, on peril of incurring a 
diminution in my love. I am pretty sure 1 should 
be the greatest sufferer. I have heard it said that 
age blunts our kindly affections ; I do not find it so. 

" I forget whether you were particularly acquainted 
with my favorite Eliza Odiorne. She has lately lost 
her lover — was at Amherst, Massachusetts, at the 
time. I hear she bears it well — like a woman — 
the phrase will, I hope, get into use. 

" This is a very stupid letter, but don't, dear El- 
len, ascribe it to loss of mind, and especially of heart 
youward. I will do better the next time. With 
my love to your father and mother, and the Miss 
Morisons, believe me your affectionate friend." 

To Miss Ellen Smith. " Exeter, Monday, May 
27th. You are not to suppose, dearest Ellen, that I am 
not thankful for your letters, because I do not immedi- 
ately answer them. The neglect, assuredly, never arises 
from want of love for you. I owe you for two let- 
ters : this proves my willingness to be in your debt ; 
yet this is the only sort of debt I am willing to owe. 
Every expression of your regard gives me pleasure ; 
and this is one of the few things whose value in- 
creases by repetition. How kind it is in Providence 



LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 471 

to give me such a correspondent, when so many friends 
and relations are gone to distant places ! 

" I flatter myself it will give you pleasure to know 
that I am in the enjoyment almost of my usual 
health ; but a little more sensible than formerly, by 
how slender a tenure I hold this greatest of earthly 
blessings. I must regard it merely as a present good 
— enjoy it as such, ready at any moment to part with 
it. It would be unreasonable in me to expect rugged 
health at this day. I wish your father's was as good, 
and as much better as you could desire. I am glad 
to hear that your mother is so well. At this moment, 
Ellen, it would give me great pleasure to look into 
your cottage on the hill-side. I could say a thou- 
sand things not important enough to commit to pa- 
per. But in such trifles consist many of the pleasures 
of life : you need not be much surprised, if in the 
course of the three or four coming weeks, you should 
see your aunt and myself in Peterborough. There 
is nothing in which we (Elizabeth and myself) agree 
better than in love for you. 

" Would you were here, Ellen ! We promise our- 
selves fine weather after the cold and dull we have 
had — come and help us to enjoy the good. We have 
had no blossoming in the garden ^ to speak of.' In 
general, I am as little dependent on the weather as 
most men ; but owing perhaps to the remains of in- 
disposition, I have felt it a little. I could, perhaps, 
in that weather, have enjoyed a little French or Latin 
with you. 

" Have you heard that your friend Miss is 

going to instruct in an academy at — ■ — ? and it is 



472 LIFE OF JUDGE S3IITH, 

said the situation was procured for her by Mrs. 
Walker. Is there to be no end to the good deeds of 
that woman ? 

" Mrs. S. thinks you would find Mad^- de Stael's 
French Revolution in for a good book. We 
have it in French and English — separate books, 
which are at your service, if not to be found with 
you. Possibly Mr. Leonard may have the work. I 
have been reading the Pickwick Papers, by Dickens. 
He keeps me excited all the time. He is my knit- 
ting-work ; but I do not recommend the book to you. 
You will read Oliver Twist with pleasure, and Nich- 
olas Nickleby, when all out. I recommend the first 
volume of Washington's works — Sparks. It is his 
Life, and I think exceedingly well done. Mrs. S. is 
engaged in reading Taylor's Home Education, and is 
much pleased v/ith it ; from the passages she reads 
to me, I agree in the commendation. There never 
was a time when advice as to the choice of books 
was more necessary ; there are so many, (and floods 
of trash) in circulation. Need I say, dearest Ellen, 
that I take pleasure in conversing with you, and that 
I give full credit to your polite declarations, desiring 
me to write long letters. I need not say that Eliza- 
beth and Jeremiah, Jr. send their best love, and that 
I am yours, very aflfectionately." 

About the middle of June, 1839, Judge Smith 
went in a chaise with his niece, Mary S. Lowe, to 
Hanover, which of course took him through nearly 
the whole extent of New Hampshire. It was a road 
which he had often travelled in former days. — 
*' What ravages," he said in a letter to his wife, dated 



LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 473 

June 21, "twenty years have made among my friends 
and acquaintances on this route ! Well may we say 
* I would not live alway ! ' I believe 1 find it as easy 
to make new acquaintances as most people, but even 
with me, tempora mutantur. ' Blessed is he that ex- 
pecteth nothing, for he shall not be disappointed.' " 
Two days later, from the same place he wrote : " I 
have escaped an unlooked-for calamity. Last even- 
ing a committee from the senior class waited on me 
at Dr. Lord's, requesting an address to the students, 
&c. I declined on the pretence of want of time, 
health, &c. ; in truth, want of something to say, and 
a little awkwardness at this day in the saying of that 
nothing. Whether I satisfied the applicants or not, 
I can't say, but I am sure I have made a saving of 
character. I was in some measure governed by my 
regard for you and Jeremiah, to save you from the 
mortification, twelve years hence, when you come up 
hither to enter the boy, of hearing the address dispar- 
agingly spoken of. There 's a prudent man for you." 
Extracts from a letter to Miss Ellen Smith. ''Ex- 
eter, July 3, 1839, Wednesday. Mary and I had a 
delightful ride on Monday. It delighted me to travel 
on the new road — an excellent one — and Mary 
to see the greatest display by the sides of the road of 
the laurel in full blossom, the largest bushes covered 
with tops of beautiful white and pink. We saw, for 
miles, enough to fill your large church twice over. 
You need not believe me ; I am afraid I should credit 
nobody's true account. Mary loaded the chaise, and 
her only regret was, that she could not take them all. 
We reached Derry in good season, and the next 
40* 



474 LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 

morning had a pleasant though warm ride home. 
We found the family very well and very happy. 
Jeremiah knew and kindly received us — never 
better. If you were with us, the measure of our 
happiness would be complete, bating the dear Eliza- 
beth's absence. 

'' Mary will stay, I hope, till the mistress comes. 
So far all good ; but I find myself a good deal indis- 
posed and a little feverish, and have just sent to Dr. 
Perry for something to make me well. 

" I do not know that I ever enjoyed more tranquil 
pleasure on an excursion in all my life. I almost 
believe I have a good tolerant spirit. How much 
Mary may claim as the procuring cause, I cannot 
say ; I am sure my dear Ellen may claim a good 
share ; and may it continue so to the end of the 
chapter, whether tlie same be longer or shorter. I 
cannot but rejoice that I enjoy so much from the 
good things in my allotment, and suffer so little from 
the annoyances and evils of life. ... I am not sen- 
sible of any great failure in these respects ; but in 
the capacity for bodily labor, the case is different. 
A little exertion fatigues me." 

" Thursday morning. How I pity the poor, lonely 
old bachelors. After forty no man should be single, 
nor woman either. Do you know I am puzzled to 
account for Mr. B.'s visit at your house Sunday even- 
ing ? Coupling that with the house, contiguity, iS^LC, 
I am in a maze. 

" We have lost Mary. Her brother wrote her to 
attend a picnic at South Berwick to-day, and she 
could not resist. Ednah would be there. For 
Ednah, read some favorite beau. 



LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 475 

" I write, dear Ellen, because it gives me pleasure. 
I can hardly hope it will give equal pleasure to you ; 
but if it gives you any, it is more than worth the 
trouble. This is not a proper word. But there is no 
mistake in saying, I am your sincere and affectionate 
J. S." 

In the summer of 1838, Judge Smith delivered a 
centennial address in Exeter, at the close of its second 
century. He had spent upon it much time and labor. 
" It was," he said, " never a favorite with me. I 
have not been disappointed to perceive that the 
hearers have adopted the same opinion." It was 
probably (for I have not seen it,') too much taken up 
witii details for a popular discourse. The next sum- 
mer he was requested to deliver an address at the 
first centennial celebration in his native town. He 
had been born within twenty years of its earliest set- 
tlement, had been personally acquainted with most of 
its original inhabitants, and had more knowledge of 
its history than all other men and documents com- 
bined. In his reply he said, "I have given mucii 
consideration to the request your letter contains, with 
a strong desire to gratify my earliest and most con- 
stant friends ; but feel myself constrained, as well 
from considerations regarding them, as myself, to 
decline. I have little confidence in my own physical 
strength for such a service, and at any period of my 
life should have required a much longer time than is 
allowed for preparation. This is a case where there 

1 After liavinj^ been nearly seven years in the hands of a printer, it is, 
I understand, to appear at last in the Collections of the New Hamp- 
shire Historical Society. 



476 LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 

may be too much seniority," etc. In a letter written 
a day or two later, to Miss Ellen Smith, he said : 
'^ I can remember the time when nothinj? would have 
promised me more gratification than such a service ; 
but Peterborough has departed from me and from its 
place, never to return. I hope the Grand Monadnoc 
will have the goodness to keep its place as long as I 
live." Most of the generation with which he had 
been connected, and all of those to whom he had 
looked up as his seniors, were now gone ; and it 
must have been a melancholy task for him to stand 
amid strangers in his native place, to discourse to 
them of those his early friends, who had now, except 
a few feeble and gray-haired relics, all passed away. 

I insert the following letter, as indicating the sort 
of feeling with which Judge Smith looked back upon 
the past, and especially on account of the subdued 
and tender interest which it shows he still took in the 
family connexions of his first wife. 

To Miss Margaretta A. Ross. " Exeter, July 29, 
1839. My dear sister : I am glad to find myself 
seated at my table in the library, resolved to acquit 
myself of some portion of the debt I owe you. You 
have been very good in writing so many kind letters, 
and I evil and apparently unthankful in not oftener 
acknowledging them. This has not, however, arisen 
from want of aflfection and esteem for you and my 
friends with you. I fear I am growing worse as I 
grow older. I was not in former times, say before the 
last twenty years, a negligent correspondent. I then 
quitted business, and am, I fear, since less punctual ; 
but for the future I will try to do better. You must 



LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 477 

not impute my neglect to your new sister. Her in- 
fluence is all the other way. I assure you she knows 
a great deal of your family, and esteems you all, 
especially the female part, as you would desire. I 
have been, as you know, in the habit of preserving 
the letters from my friends, and have some drafts and 
copies of my own. My whole correspondence with 
your dear sister Eliza is on file, and so with Ariana. 
I wish it were larger ; for it is exceedingly precious 
to me. I have also very many letters from relations 
and valued acquaintances, male and female. During 
the last winter and spring, Elizabeth and myself spent 
all our leisure days in reading them. It was pleasant 
to us both, and Mrs. S. is now the better informed of 
the two in my past life and in the history of your 
family. You, even you, can hardly conceive how 
perfect she is in the peculiar character of our late 
sister, H. M. R. You know how well and minutely 
and impartially, too, she describes things ; and woe to 
the subject of her letters, if they happen to have any 
faults. It is a chance if we do not hear of them. 
She and her daughter Elizabeth, that used forty- 
three years ago to sit on my knee, died, I think, 
before my dear Ariana. If her sons partake at all of 
her energetic character, they must succeed in life." 

After some details respecting his infant son. Judge 
Smith adds : " You are aware that I am upon the 
eve of fourscore, and do not expect to see him edu- 
cated ; but he is in good hands, divine and human, 
and I have no anxieties on this or any other score. 
The same kind Providence that has watched over the 
parents will not forsake the child. I wish you could 



478 LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 

see him ; I am sure it would give you pleasure. You 
have not probably forgot the dear child who was 
drowned in the Little River, Oct. 14, 1808. I can 
sympathize sincerely with your sister and niece in 
the deaths of beloved children, and most of all, with 
Mrs. Stewart in the death of her only child Elizabeth ; 
and though her death happened twenty-four years 
ago, she still lives as freshly in her mother^s remem- 
brance, as my daughter, who died ten years ago, does 
in mine. I know not whether it is pecuhar to me, 
but all my recollections of Ariana's person, character, 
and whole being, have ever been sweet, and I hope 
salutary to me. 

" I suppose you have not heard of Mrs. Tenney's 
death. She was born April 7, 1762, and died May 
12, 1837, in her seventy-sixth year. The present, 
as did the former Mrs. S., highly esteemed her. 
You have not forgot that our neighbors did not do 
her justice. She was always in the habit of intimacy 
with us ; towards the end her visits were frequent, 
and there was no abatement in her powers of mind. 
Her sickness was but of a few days' duration, and 
she met the last enemy as a Christian should. She 
had joined our church probably after you left. The 
Doctor ' died twenty-one years before her. Now 
that I am speaking of deaths of friends, I would add 
that of John Rogers, the cashier of our bank in your 
day. He died two years ago of general debility. 
Was it you or Nancy that went with me to Roches- 

1 Dr. Samuel Tenney, a man of talents and integrity, and particularly 
interested in scientific pursuits. He had been a representative in con- 
gress, &c. 



LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 479 



ter, thirty miles, with Miss M. E and N. G- 



the latter to meet her lover ? He is now a judge of 
the supreme court in Maine, a rich man. The Mrs. 
Tilton, of Rochester, to whom the visit was made, 
died about two years ago, without children — a valu- 
able woman. Miss Emery still remains in the state of 
single blessedness, with a lively, cheerful temper, and 
prudence, which makes a small sum, chiefly of her 
own earning, adequate to her support. She is now 
one of my Elizabeth's most intimate friends. 

" Our village is so changed in twenty years, that 
you would hardly know it. It is much improved in 
appearance, society, and comforts. I wish you could 
have a walk in our alleys, garden, &c. You know 
your sister delighted in planting ; we have plenty of 
shade, chiefly of her making. Our household is not 

very large. M. J. S , who claims descent from 

the late W. S , is just fifteen. 1 took her into 

the family seven or eight years ago. She is in the 
way of getting a very good education, is a handsome 
and bright girl. My object was to repair, as well as I 
could, the injury done by her father. You may judge 
somewhat of Mrs. S.'s disposition by her kindness to 
this young lady. 

" Mrs. S.'s nurse in her last sickness, and house- 
keeper, and who died in the family, an excellent 
woman, left a son, now sixteen. I have sent him to 
the academy. He is a bright boy, and I hope will do 
well. My three deaf and dumb nieces are occasion- 
ally with us, and are charming, well-educated women. 
Mrs. S. is fond of society ; we are seldom without 
agreeable visiters. I did not allow myself to hve 



480 LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 

above my income, even when without children. In 
that situation I intended to found two or tiiree scho- 
larships, for the maintenance of scholars at the univer- 
sity. You will not understand from this that my 
means are large. I never coveted riches, and what I 
have is the income from my profession, interrupted 
by serving in congress and on the bench. I have 
been always an economist, and would be so if I had 
my life to lead over again. My feelings towards you, 
Mrs. S. and Mrs. 11., are such as 1 endeavored to 
express in my letter of 1833, and I shall be glad to 
receive at all times the most unreserved comnmnica- 
tions from you. Give my best love to the other two, 
and accept for yourself my kindest and most affec- 
tionate regards, in which Mrs. S. most heartily joins 



CHAPTER XVII. 

LETTERS ADVICE TO JOEL FURBEll JUDGE SMITH 

SELLS HIS PLACE AT EXETER RESIDES IN DOVER 

RELIGIOUS VIEWS AND CHARACTER LAST ACTS 

SICKNESS DEATH. 

Judge Smith got through the winter of 1839-40 
witliout any recurrence of the attack from which he 
had sufTcrcd the winter before, and found himself in 
the spring unusually well. In a letter to Miss Ellen 
Smith, after speaking of the death of a child in 
whom they were interested, he says — " We seem to 
live in a world where sorrows and joys are intermix- 
ed, and perhaps the one is as necessary as the other. 
. . . IIow are your good father and mother ? Are 
we never to see them again ? As the circle of friends 
narrows, our interest in those within increases, so 
that we have the same portion of kind feelings to 
soften tlic rugged scenes of life. ... It is said we 
love our friends best when they are dead ; their thou- 
sand merits then break forth, (fcc. I don't know how 
this may be. I am not sure we don't love them best 
at a distance. Their merits take a prominent place, 
and their faults sink in the distance, and yet how can 
41 



482 LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 

this apply to you who have no faults, and are besides 
always present with me, and whom I love equally, at 
all times and in all places ? I believe we are made 
up of contradictions. However that may be, without 
contradiction and without paradox, I am, as always, 
your alTectionate friend, J. S." 

Extracts from letters to Mrs. Smith. " Exeter, 
June 18, 1840. I received (in a visit to Boston) all 
the attention 1 would allow, and enjoyed the rides all 
round exceedingly. You know I love the earth as 
well as its productions. I love the vegetable as well 
as the animal kingdom, in an inferior degree, how- 
ever." June 24. " My friend and his wife, 

from the insane hospital, have just gone. She seems 
the more rational of the two, and is a very pretty 
woman. They are very poor, and I pity them, and 
have done my best to make a few hours of their 
life as pleasant as possible." June 27th. " The last 
part of your letter, — ' I am quite comfortable this 
morning, and feel that I am getting better,' — is very 
good ; but you do not know how much you lose. 
Our place is beautiful — never better. You will lose 
a year ; but I suppose you are saying, ' Elizabeth, 
thou hast many years in store,' &c. Heaven grant it 
may be so. Jeremiah is very well — happy as a 
prince. We get along very well. If either of my 
three favorites, Mary, Ellen, or the dear Sarah, were 
only to come, I should be too happy. But I will not 
let my enjoyments depend too much on others, and I 
recommend the same to you. I have no doubt we 
can, if we will, cultivate this spirit of independence. 
You think I have too much of it ; experience has 



LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 483 

taught it me. It only means non-dependence on 
the weak and wayward. There is no danger from 
dependence on the wise and prudent few." " I hope 
my friend did not use my name in his apphcations to 
your friends. He spoke of taking Dover in his way 
home. I suspect the spunging was his sole object. 
God forgive me ; but I never liked beggars. I do 
not see why he cannot earn his living. His style of 
asking is that of a practised beggar." 

" August 3. I attended church this forenoon, and 
apply myself this afternoon to Robert Hall. The 
dead man preaches better than the living one. My 
printed sermons are always far better than any I 
hear. This is one of the few subjects in which I am 
willing to differ from you, because I would not lessen 

your enjoyments 4th. I think I shall go 

through the whole volume ; and yet such reading 
tends to make me less satisfied with the preaching 
and society of less gifted men. . . . He was certainly 
a man of genius. How few such in his profession ! 
And how fortunate that it is so ! They are not safe 
guides, and cannot be happy with a stupid people, 
which truly characterizes the bulk of mankind." 

To Mrs. Walker. " Sept. 22, 1840. A few days 
only have passed since we heard of the death of your 
much loved son. From the reports of his case that 
had reached us, we were not taken by surprise. 
Ever since we understood his case, we have felt in- 
tensely for you and all the survivors, but most for 
you. The closing scene must have been to you a 
merciful, though a painful one. I have not forgot 
my feelings on a similar occasion, and I hope your 



484 LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 

better heart does not, as mine did, for a short time, 
indulge in murmurs against the hand from which 
these calamities come. We must not attempt to scan 
the causes of these severe afflictions, but content our- 
selves with the belief that all is wise and just and 
good. It is wisely ordered that your own reflections 
will gradually bring the comfort and consolation you 
need. A friend can sympathize, and that is not 
without its uses ; but the afflicted soul must bear the 
sufferings alone. I pray God you may have the con- 
solations which he can, and friends cannot, bestow. 
You will soon learn to appreciate as a comforter the 
excellent worth of the object taken from you, and the 
resignation and Christian feelings of the dear sufferer. 
We must, and so I thought in my case eleven years 
ago, believe in the influences of the Divine Spirit on 
the mind of the dear sufferer. Without this, it is 
impossible to account for what you must have wit- 
nessed in your son. 

" But, dear Sarah, though we cannot bear your 
afflictions, we are desirous of having you with us, 
that we may do all we can to alleviate them. The 
bustle of the summer is ended and gone ; we shall 
soon part with Joel, who goes to St. Louis in three 
weeks ; our family will be small, and we have room, 
plenty and quiet. Elizabeth's health I think better, 
and she is relieved from her attendance on her 
mother, who is now much better. My own health 
was, I think, never better, and it is no part of a wise 
or a religious man to let these good things pass unen- 
joyed. I can think of nothing to add to mine so 
much as your society." 



LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 485 

Joel Furber, who is referred to in this letter, and 
of whose short life a sketch has already been given, 
left Exeter for St. Louis, the 10th of October, 1840. 
The paper of advice which Judge Smith gave at tliat 
time to this fatherless and motherless boy, is so full 
of wise instruction, the fruit of many years' experi- 
ence, and is marked by so warm and kind an interest, 
that I insert it here entire, both as a guide to other 
young men, and for the honor which it throws back 
on him who wrote it. 

To Joel Furber. " In May, 1837, from respect to 
the memory of your mother, and from an opinion that 
your capacity was a good one, I determined to give 
you an academical education. I thought, if you 
made a good improvement of your time, you might 
in two or three years get such an education as might 
enable you to go through life in a respectable situa- 
tion. I did not intend to pledge myself for the fu- 
ture ; all was to depend on the discoveries time might 
make. Hitherto you have not disappointed my ex- 
pectations, and the time has now come when your 
age and education fit you to enter on the world. 

" I shall furnish you with testimonials of character 
and with letters to my friends in the west, to assist 
you in finding employment, and with advice till your 
own knowledge and experience may be sufficient to 
guide you. And here it may be proper to say that 
your chief dependence under heaven must be upon 
yourself. Persons of your age, though not generally 
wanting in a good opinion of themselves and the 
world, seldom realize how little friends are disposed 
to do, or indeed can do, to promote their success in 
41* 



486 LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 

life. It is in finding employment, or in what regards 
the first step, they will be found useful. When your 
character and disposition are fairly developed, you 
must rely on these to procure you business and 
friends ; too much recommendation and assistance 
are sometimes productive of evil instead of good. A 
little suflfering — difficulties to be overcome — a little 
mortification from the indifference and neglect of 
friends, are sometimes better than their opposites. 

" It is indispensable that you start in life with a 
correct estimate of yourself. Be sure not to think of 
yourself ^ more highly than you ought to think,' and 
that as regards your personal, mental and moral qual- 
ities. If you err here, you are sure to be corrected, 
and may perchance suffer a little mortification in un- 
dergoing the discipline of the world's school. It may, 
however, do you a great deal of good. It is not my 
meaning that you should err on the other hand, and 
think too meanly of yourself, and of your powers of 
mind, and moral strength. This would discourage 
and weaken your eflTorts. In the journey of life you 
will need all the strength you have, and you must feel 
that you have it. A low estimate of self might dis- 
courage, and a high one beget presumption — both 
are alike to be avoided. 

" Depend upon it, that vulgar thing called labor, 
pains, care and diligence, gives better security for 
success in the world — indeed, for the acquisition of 
everytliing good, than ability and learning. In your 
academical life you must have seen something of this 
value of application ; the register is no index to the 
minds and talents of the scholars. The high marks 



LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 487 

are given not to capacity, but to labor, attention and 
diligence in study. The world also keep a register, 
and adopt the same rule in marking. I hope you 
will aim at ^ 8s,' ' and ' highly creditable.' 

" You will find the advantage of the modest self- 
estimate I recommend, in the very outset of your 
career. It will lead you not to despise employment 
as too low for your capacity and merits. Depend 
upon it, when you have exhibited to the world the 
evidence of your fitness for the highest employments, 
you will have them. But supposing your estimate of 
self to be a proper one, there is another error I have 
seen discreet and sensible young men fall into. I 
mean the too great hurry to seize the prizes — the 
rewards of labor before they are earned. I would 
have you earnest, zealous, ardent in the acquisition 
of all the good you propose to yourself. You should 
have praiseworthy objects always before your eyes, 
and diligently pursue them — you must never weary 
in well-doing, but at the same time you must moder- 
ate your expectations, and remember that a sanguine 
temper of mind is likely to end in mortification and 
disappointment, and so discourage exertions. 

" No good thing is obtained without time. The 
best things are of the slowest growth. This is the 
order of nature, and you can hardly expect nature 
will change for your special accommodation. I have 
myself observed that those who hasten to be rich and 
learned, in the end are poor and ignorant. 

" But there is another thing in which I am not 

1 The highest mark at the academy. 



488 LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 

without suspicions of you. I mean an unsteady, 
wavering temper of mind. You may have obstinacy 
enough when you happen to be in the wrong, but 
have you firmness and perseverance enough when in 
the right ? I have known persons not wanting in 
judgment, but who were constant in nothing but 
changes — ever adopting new courses of business — 
trying them for a short space, but not giving them a 
fair trial, and then abandoning them for some new 
project. This is a very great as well as a very com- 
mon error, and accounts for many of the failures in 
life I have witnessed. Be slow in adopting your 
plans — carefully observe their working, and perse- 
vere in them till your judgment is clearly convinced. 
I have seen a laborious and painful life wasted — all 
for the want of a little more ' patient continuance in 
well-doing.' 

" I have recommended to you a just opinion of 
self — rather too low than too high — but the case is 
different as it regards the opinions you form of others. 
Here it is better to err on the other side. Charity 
and politeness require you should think favorably of 
your acquaintance ; and where you cannot do this 
be sure to keep your thoughts to yourself. This tem- 
per of mind is perfectly consistent with personal inde- 
pendence and decision of character. You must on 
no account sacrifice these. There is a satisfaction in 
them which the wavering, and unsteady, and infirm 
of purpose can never know. 

" As a youth, your deportment, as far as I know, 
has always been distinguished for modesty and civil- 
ity, especially towards the aged. When I see the 



LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 489 

reverse, as I often do, I augur ill of the youth : and 
have seldom seen him grow^ into a respectable man. 
" It is, perhaps, strongly enough expressed already, 
that I would have you active, industrious, wide awake. 
You have hitherto hardly had an opportunity to test 
your active powers, mental or bodily. I hope you 
have a good share of them. There is now a call for 
them. You must now depend on yourself, and be 
assured if you sleep you perish. You will at first 
find yourself a little awkward in your new situa- 
tion — no one to advise — to remind — to direct — 
no arm but your own to lean on. I have seen young 
men so situated, pursue different courses : one class 
girded themselves for the race — put out all their 
strength, and though from inexperience committing 
many errors, yet daily rising in the world, and finally 
attaining a high character and a respectable place in 
society ; — the other class, from timidity, love of idle- 
ness or from something worse, soon sinking into dis- 
grace, and becoming members of that class, who 
prefer living upon others, to earning a living for them- 
selves. Idleness is the ruin of more young men than 
any other sin that besets them, or than all others put 
together ; indeed, it is not long a single vice. It 
draws after it a thousand others. The idle fellow 
must have company, and his companions will be sure 
to be idle fellows hke himself. The excitement of 
drinking, if excitement it may be called, will soon be 
resorted to, and every other kind of dissipation will 
soon be added thereto. When I hear you are idle — 
destitute of employment — are rambling about from 
place to place under pretence of seeking it, I shall 



490 LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 

have before my mental eye a'complete map of your 
whole life. 1 shall see the end of the man, in whose 
welfare I have taken so deep an interest. It must 
needs be that you will come in contact with the dissi- 
pated. Shun them as you would persons infected 
with the plague. You must have seen in the acad- 
emy many young lads of good parts, who have suf- 
fered disgrace from this cause alone. It has always 
appeared to me wonderful that idleness should seduce 
any one. To me it has seemed ever odious and dis- 
gusting. A lazy man is my utter aversion. 

" On reading this to Mrs. Smith she desires me to 
add to the catalogue of ' the evitanda,^ the dangerous 
practice of running in debt. She would have you 
avoid debts as you would any other kind of servitude. 
I have known many who miglit justly ascribe their 
ruin to this practice. It includes (and I would have 
you exclude) all kinds of speculation. Get what you 
get by honest labor and honest business. A little 
thus gotten is better than a mickle got by specula- 
tion. This has always been my way of thinking. I 
believe I never speculated to the amount of a single 
dollar, for which I desire to be thankful to a kind 
Providence. 

" I recommend to you early to acquire the habit of 
economy, whether your gains or means be great or 
small. Indeed, in this way a small estate answers 
all the purposes of a great one. And connected with 
this, I would have you cultivate habits of order and 
care in all your business and concerns. Tlie way to 
grow rich is not by earnings, but by careful keeping 
and prudent spending. 



LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 491 

'' I have said nothing of rehgion and good morals. 
Attention to them is indispensable. You cannot do 
without religion ; and if, haply, you find the right 
sort, your morals cannot fail to be pure and good. 

'^ I can only add that as to these loose hints, drawn 
up without any regard to order or method, I expect 
little from them. I rely much more on your own 
good sense and good habits to conduct you in the 
paths of wisdom and prudence. 

'' If you have any desire to repay the little I have 
done for you in the last fifteen years, there is no way 
in which you can do it so much to my satisfaction as 
by continuing to act wisely and discreetly for your- 
self. 

" Be an honest and virtuous man, and I shall be 
proud of you, and continue to pray that God may 
bless you and preserve you here and hereafter. 1st 
October, 1840." 

To Mrs. Smith. " Tremont House, Boston, 16th 
May, 1841. Sunday, P. M. My dear wife: Mr. 
F. called immediately after dinner, and deprived me 
of the afternoon service. He is just gone, and I de- 
vote half an hour to thee. I am sure it is spending 
my time well, for there is no evil connected with so 
pure a subject. I heard an excellent sermon this 
morning from Mr. G., on the evils and dangers of 
wealth, and rejoiced that I was safe on that score. I 
am not sure I should maintain my integrity when 
tempted by riches I find not a single com- 
panion in this great house of eighty or a hundred. 
The city is as quiet as the grave. These two days 
have refreshed me mightily, and I am very, very well. 



492 LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 

.... I find I have lost all my ambition. I used 
to desire to make a favorable impression on my Bos- 
ton fiiends. Now I am quite indifferent — not that 
I love them less, but myself more. I believe age is 
selfish. There is little to stimulate desire ; but 1 do 
not love you the less, and shall appreciate Exeter the 
more from this little excursion." 

To Miss Ellen Smith. "Exeter, 29th October, 
1841. Only think, dearest Ellen, I have not seen 
you for a whole year, and how great a proportion 
does this same year bear to my whole life to come. 
The tables of life give a fraction only above three 
years, and it may prove less than three days. I beg 
you would consider this seriously, (for it is a serious 
thought,) and act accordingly. I suppose tliere is 
nothing strange in the fiiding away of my desire for 
locomotion. I certainly intended to visit Peterbo- 
rough in tlie autumn. The indisposition of my friends 
with you, as well as my own prevented, and I have 
now half persuaded myself that all old creatures are 
best at home. Perhaps my conclusion, that there- 
fore you must come here, is not strictly warranted by 
the premises. I have a fancy that I am most agree* 
able at home. Come then, my dearest Ellen, and 
make us happy, if only for a month. Leave all your 
duties and cares with Sarah. Your modesty will not 
allow you to think these duties will be worse dis- 
charged. The more I see of her, the less I should 
be inclined to fear it. It is, besides, selfish in you to 
engross all these amiable virtues. Let all your friends 
participate in your enjoyments. A good lawyer 
would make more of the argument. Think of the 



LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 493 

pleasure you would give Mrs. Smith and Jeremiah, 
and how useful your society would be to Jane." 

" I ought, my dear sir," he said to another corres- 
pondent, 13th November, 1841, "long since to have 
acknowledged your letter. This duty has often been 
in my mind, but its effectual performance depended 
on another thing, and that has been neglected. It 
is indeed a poor excuse for neglecting this, and yet, 
somehow or other, when we have two connected du- 
ties to perform, we are apt to neglect one because 
we have neglected the other, and feel easier under a 
double than under a single fault." 

In a letter to Mrs. Smith, written about the same 
time, after mentioning some unkind words which had 
been spoken years before, he adds : '* Provoking this, 
and now remembered. Would it not be for the 
peace of the world to have an act of oblivion passed 
every six years, corresponding with our statute of 

limitations ? was to dehver a caucus speech, 

&c. How much good temper have I gained or kept 
by the little interest 1 have taken at all times in poli- 
tics. I suppose I could not have done it, if I had 
not taken a great deal of interest in something else, 
that was, my profession and a moderate provision for 
age and family." 

To Miss Lowe. " 22d January, 1842. My dear 
Mary : 1 was sick, and you visited me not. 

" The contrast. Three days ago, when alone in 
my room, and engaged in adorning myself, my 
eyes on the glass, a female figure entered, and 
seated herself on the other side of the table. I sup- 
posed it was Jane, dressed for the village, and wait- 
42 



494 LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 

ing for my commands ; but a second glance showed 
a figure and dress of higher pretensions — the person 
a stranger. My curiosity was a little excited, and I 
addressed the beautiful unknown. She spoke in a 
disguised voice. I begged her to remove the veil, 
which she did, and behold S. S. H. stood before me. 
She had heard the day before that her friend, the 
Judge, was sick ; her call was the consequence. She 
found her friend relieved from the first indisposition, 
but so blind with sore eyes, that he could hardly see 
the bright vision before him. She returned the same 
evening. 

" Mary was ^ intending to write sooner ; doubts 
whether she will be able to stay away three months 
longer ; her time is now wanted to read novels to Miss 
C.,' &.C. These are my female friends. Your sex, 
you know, is a thousand times more compassionate 
than mine. For your, read some of your sex ; for 
example, Ellen the good. ' I was up this morning 
long before the sun, that I might write you before the 
mail goes out. I regretted exceedingly to hear that 
you were aflHicted with another of your severe colds. 
How much 1 wished to be with you, and particularly 
at a time when I could be useful to those I love.' 
Was it not Mrs. M. who said ' there is a difference 
in women ? ' I will not offend against my judgeship 
by a hasty decision. The appearance of things, as it 
regards affection, is certainly against my Mary. But 
no doubt, (at least I am willing to believe so,) she 
has good reasons for her conduct. I have been really 
and truly sick, and my eyes yet leave me entirely at 
the mercy of Elizabeth and Jane for food for the 



LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 495 

mind. They are very, very good, but both afflicted 
with bad colds." 

To Miss Hammond he wrote, January 24 : " How 
shall I thank you as I ought, for your visit of 
Wednesday ? If good acts carry their own reward, 
you must be doubly happy. I am, in consequence, 
quite well, with the exception of two eyes, that have 
already seen their share of earthly good." 

On the 7th of February, 1842, Judge Smith sold 
his place in Exeter, possession to be delivered the 
1st of April. To some of his friends, it was hard to 
think of the alienation of an estate which had been, 
in their minds, associated with him for so many 
years, and made sacred to them by the memory 
alike of the living and the dead. He thought him- 
self indifferent to the change ; but in this respect I 
do not think he understood himself. In a letter 
written a few days before the bargain was concluded, 
he said : " Everything goes on as it should. The 
nights are not quite so well. I do not sleep. The 
meditated change in domicil, in spite of my fixed, 
stayed, and approving judgment, will, against my 
will, keep me awake after the first sleep." His 
reasons for what he had done, are best given in his 
own words. In a letter to Miss Hammond, February 
10, 1842, he said : '' My dearest Sarah : I need not 
attempt to say how much I am gratified by yours of 
the 8th, this moment received. I was at the time 
about to sit down to write to you, and tell you what 
I had just done ; something of importance to me, 
and more to my Elizabeth. The law (of nature) 
says, that my lease of life must expire soon, very 



496 LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 

soon ; and wisdom, divine and human, says ' Set thy 
house in order, for thou shalt surely die.' 

" You know I am happy in my dwelhng, and that 
I desire no cliange, especially when you are in it ; 
certainly none on my own account ; but it would be 
a great shame in me not to have the most lively, as 
well as the most kind regard, for those of my family 
who will doubtless survive me. Solely and entirely 
on their account, I have sold my house and farm, 
and am to surrender possession the 1st of April com- 
ing. ' To what place are you going ? ' I hear my 
Sarah ask. I cannot tell. To a hired house (the 
apostle, you know, lived in his own hired house,) 
here ; and in due time a snug little cottage in the 
village, to my native place, or to Elizabeth's native 
place and her father's house ; so far is decided. To 
which of the three, 1 have left entirely to Elizabeth, 
and I have no doubt she will decide wisely. To 
me place is indifferent, so it be with my nurse and 
child." 

To Miss Ellen Smith. " Exeter, February '20, 
1842. My dearest Ellen : This is not a letter, but 
a few lines to explain to you the reasons of my 
selling the house over our heads — to quit 1st April. 
It was not because I was dissatisfied with it — it was 
exactly what I had made, and exactly to my mind — 
but solely because I thought it would trouble those I 
leave behind. For the same reasons I left it entirely 
to Elizabeth to say, where she would nurse me in the 
short remainder of life, and for the present she fixes 
on a part of her father's house at Dover, and thither 
we go in about four weeks. The other alternatives 



LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 497 

were to build a small house here or at Peterborough. 
This is the second wise thing I have done in my long 
life. The first was to leave off business at a proper 
age (sixty) ; and this, to consult at a slight expense 
to myself, the interest and happiness of those dear 
to me, now and in all time to come. This removal 
will, of course, detach me from the bank and the 
academy, and leave me nothing to do but to visit 
you often at P., and, I hope, welcome you often at 
Dover. 

'^ You, my dearest Ellen, are one of the few whose 
approval of every step I take I desire. I am sure 
you will understand my motives, and I shall grieve if 
you do not approve of my small sacrifice of my 
present happiness to the greater good of wife and 
child. I am not sure there is any sacrifice ; for, 
phrenologically speaking, I have no bump of locality. 

" Have the goodness to show this to the good 
Mrs. W., and such other of my friends who take an 
interest in my doings, and are so good as to believe 
a man may act on such motives. If I have com- 
mitted an error, it is of the judgment ; selfish mo- 
tives have had no influence in this fifth and last act of 
my hfe. God bless you, my dear Ellen." 

In a letter to J. H. Morison, begun the 23d and 
finished the 28th of March, he said : " I am at the 
Swamscot, in my own hired room, since yesterday, 
when I gave Elizabeth, Jeremiah, Ann and Lizzy 
Saul (a favorite domestic,) to the cars for Dover, 
never to return, except as visiters, to Exeter. The 
fires were extinguished the same evening, and a 
watcher placed in the house, to wait the arrival of 
42=^ 



498 LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 

J. L. Cilley, the new owner, who, with his family, 
entered into full possession this morning. As our 
worthy old acquaintance, the Public, are generally 
ignorant of the motives which govern the poor cul- 
prit at their bar, and of the circumstances of the 
case, is it to be wondered they generally judge 
amiss ? I have sent a memoir justificatif to Peter- 
borough, addressed to my friend Ellen. If I had the 
rough draft before me, I would merely copy it for 
you, whose good opinion will be an object of desire, 
when houses and lands are gone. 

" The tables of life give me only an equal chance 
for two or three years. I have no reason to doubt 
they will be happy years anywhere on this globe of 
ours. Locality I have none ; but it occurred to me, 
it would be cruel to leave Elizabeth and her son (then 
of seven,) in a house and on a farm, which to neglect 
is to ruin, both in looks and value ; tormenting the 
possessors, while the process of deterioration is 
going on, and the loss of the house and farm carry- 
ing with it the probable destruction of their other 
inheritance. I easily persuaded myself that it was 
my duty to sell my dirty acres myself, vest the pro- 
ceeds in the safest way I could, and live, in the Eng- 
lish style, on our income, surrendering to younger 
men my bank and academy duties. While I re- 
mained in Exeter, I could not easily do so. Hitherto 
I have not been sensible of any material lack of bu- 
siness capacity ; but that may come at any moment, 
and must come soon. It is quite time to reduce 
the points of contact with the world as far as pos- 
sible. 



LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 499 

" Mrs. S.'s father and sister, ever since Mrs. Hale's 
death, last June, have needed Elizabeth's aid. There 
is an excellent house, large enough for us all, and Mr. 
Hale says I may fit up a room to my own liking, and 
dwell there in peace and comfort, surrounded by my 
old and well-tried friends upon the shelves. 

" I never was an anxious man, and as the world 
recedes I shall not court it, but content myself with 

being a looker-on. Your old friend , lately 

died, much reduced in his moral and religious man ; 
his latter days were spent in the struggle to increase 
his estate, by vexing his poor neighbors. I have no 
desire to increase my little substance. It is enough, 
and I will try to enjoy it as an octogenarian ought. 
I have been governed in these late movements solely 
and entirely by a sense of duty. I need not say I 
am happy ; for you know how happy the perform- 
ance of duty makes us all. I never stepped out of 
my house with more pleasurable feelings than I did 
Monday evening, or more in charity with all the 
world, no way anxious about the few days to come. 
I am almost ashamed to say how few are my doubts, 
as to the remnant of my long life. ' I have set my 
house in order.' " 

Judge Smith had now removed to Dover, and 
found himself pleasantly established there. He en- 
deared himself to the members of the family ; his 
intercourse with Mr. Hale was exceedingly pleasant 
to them both, and his society was sought and valued, 
especially by the young. In the language of one ^ 

1 The Hon. John P. Hale, whose independent and manly course, in 
respect to the extension of slavery, by the annexation of Texas, must do 
him infinitely more honor than the possession of any office. 



500 LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 

who saw much of him at that period, " There was a 
beautiful moral sublimity in the spectacle, exhibited 
by the sage of a preceding century, who had coun- 
selled with Washington and his compatriots, all long 
since entered upon their reward, about the momen- 
tous interests staked upon the experiment of putting 
in operation the moral and political machinery of a 
new government, relaxing and unbending his giant 
mind, to join in the innocent pleasures to be found 
in the society of the young, without abating aught 
from the real dignity of his character." 

An article on the judicial appointments of John 
Adams, which appeared about this time in the Bos- 
ton Daily Advertiser, and written, evidently, by one 
eminently qualified to write on such a subject, is 
marked by so true and affectionate a spirit, that I 
cannot help inserting here so much of it as relates to 
Judge Smith, though I do not know the name of the 
author. After speaking of Elijah Paine, John Mar- 
shall, Bushrod Washington, John Davis, and William 
Cranch, all of whom had been placed upon the bench 
by the elder Adams, it goes on thus : " There is yet 
among the living another object of Mr. Adams's re- 
gard, and of his selection for judicial place, whose idea 
brings to many who have long known him a rushing 
crowd of grateful and affectionate feelings. He was 
in congress in Washington's time, and one of his 
greatest admirers ' this side idolatry.' The daily 
companion and bosom friend of Ames, the cotempo- 
rary of Madison and Giles, of Boudinot and Bayard, 
of the Pinckneys, and Laughlin Smith ; and the 
familiar associate of King and Cabot. I mean Jere- 



LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 501 

miah Smith, of New Hampshire ; and let it be said 
to her praise, that she early discerned his worth, 
and gave him her confidence. Richly did he re- 
turn honor for honor, and distinction for distinc- 
tion. If the recent and the present cannot be 
looked upon with satisfaction, let him, and let 
others, feed on the rich recollections of the past. 
Having been district attorney for New Hampshire, 
he became, by Mr. Adams's appointment judge 
of the circuit court, and held the place during the 
continuance of that tribunal, and afterwards for 
many years chief justice of the state. He is now 
enjoying, at advanced age, life, and literature, and 
law, with as much zest as others who have not 
numbered half his years. You and I saw him, not 
many years ago, in a circle and on an occasion which 
called forth the exercise of his powers, and deeply 
affected the sympathies of all around him. I have 
witnessed nothing superior to the pathos with which 
he then addressed us. Indeed there is nothing 
which strikes the human eye and the human ear, 
nothing that touches every deep-toned key of the 
human heart, more than ^ an old man eloquent ; ' 
eloquent with high truth, eloquent in the manifesta- 
tion of the rich fruits of experience, and in the vale- 
dictory character necessarily belonging to all he 
says ; eloquent in nervous, manly, strongly conceived 
thoughts, uttered with glowing warmth, though by a 
voice not free from tremulousness, and with an eye 
sparkling through the moisture of age. Such he 
then appeared to us ; and if we may not hope to see 
him again, under circumstances so affecting, yet let 



502 LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 

US hope to meet him in more private scenes, in 
health and spirits, and in the perennial flow of 
that wit and pleasantry which so much distinguish 
him. A grateful junior may say to him, ^ guide, 
protector, friend,' serus in ccBlum i^edeas. " * 

I have purposely deferred speaking of Judge 
Smith's religious investigations, opinions and char- 
acter. He had been educated as a Scotch Presby- 
terian. His parents, his religious teachers, his early 
associates, and the college at which he was graduated, 
were of that denomination. He seems to have been 
set apart by his friends for the ministry, and on many 
accounts that would have been the profession of his 
choice. He early committed to memory large por- 
tions of the Scriptures, and the favorite studies of his 
youth as well as of his riper years, were on theologi- 
cal subjects. He was not unacquainted with the great 
divines belonging to the early age of the English 
church ; with Hooker, Chillingworth and Jeremy 
Taylor ; but the writers of a succeeding generation, 
though less comprehensive in their intellectual grasp, 
were more to his taste. He was familiar with the 
works of Tillotson, and South, and Seed, and Seeker, 
and acknowledged his obligations for the important 
aid he had received from King's Essay on the Origin 
of Evil. Sherlock, he used to say, was too ingenious, 
and Horsley too learned for him ; the discourses of 
Porteus he read with pleasure, and Blair's Sermons, 
by their purity of style and sentiment, made up in 



1 Since writing the above, I have heard the article attributed to Mr. 
Webster. 



LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 503 

some measure for their want of strength and solid 
instruction. Bishop Butler, however, from his clear, 
strong, unanswerable reasoning, and his profound 
knowledge of human nature, and the laws of God 
as unfolded in harmonious corresoondence througfh 
his word and his works, was the divine whom he 
preferred to all others, and down to the latest period 
of his life, he continued to read his sermons again 
and again, and always with new admiration.^ While 
in congress he heard Dr. Priestley's Lectures on His- 
tory, and was deeply interested in them, though I do 
not think that he valued Priestley very highly, as a 
writer. Thrown into public life at a time when so- 
ciety throughout the civilized world was shaken to 
its centre, and all the old landmarks of belief were 
held up to contempt by those who would themselves 
be regarded as the light of the world, he read the 
works of unbelievers, and though sometimes charmed 
by their fascination of style, he subjected their rea- 
soning to the cool, impartial, searching scrutiny of a 
judicial process, applying to the evidences of Christ- 
ianity, the severest rules of testimony. With him, 
as it had been with Judge Parsons, after a similar 
examination, the result was a clear, undoubting con- 
viction of the truth and genuineness of the gospels. 
But the more he thought and studied on religious 



1 Judge Smith quoted with approbation this remark ; " Everybody 
should read Bishop Butler's Analogy once a year till he can understand 
it, and once a year afterwards to enjoy it. Vou talk of the wealth of 
the Church of England, but if all the revenues of the See of Durham 
from the Conquest were accumulated in one vast sum, the whole would 
be of less value than that inestimable work." 



504 LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 

subjects, aided in his inquiries by the ablest writers, 
the more comprehensive was liis creed, and the less 
importance did he attach to any pecuhar form of faith 
or worship. He had been charmed by the youthful 
and sainted eloquence of Buckminster. His soul was 
moved to its depths, and lifted up as into a purer 
atmosphere, by the writings of Channing. He used 
often to tell of hearing him preach many years ago 
on humility. '' When he announced his subject," 
said he, " I thought that I was safe ; that it might be 
a very instructive sermon to others, and entertaining 
to me. But in a few minutes, to my surprise, I found 
that I must plead guilty to that count in the indict- 
ment, though very sure that it must be the only one. 
But as he went on, I was obliged to give up point 
after point, and at last came away mortified and 
humbled at the consciousness of my own pride." 
Not long before his death, he happened to remain at 
the communion service, which was administered by 
Dr. Channing, and " whether it was," he said, " some- 
thing peculiar in my feelings at the time, or in the 
expression of him who broke the bread, I had never 
before so entered into the spirit of the service." He 
was also delighted both in public and private, with 
Bishop Cheverus, of the Roman Catholic church, 
whose self-denying and devoted labors for his " few 
sheep in the wilderness," he had witnessed while 
spending several weeks on business in the lower part 
of Maine. He remembered as long as he lived the 
interest with which he had listened to a sermon by 
the Rev. Dr. Alexander, of Princeton. He was 
greatly entertained by the preaching of Dr. Beecher ; 



LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 505 

and though he could not assent to all the doctrines 
it contains, held in high regard the Book of Common 
Prayer. In speaking of the Burial Service, he once 
said, that to have it read at his funeral was almost 
enough to reconcile one to dying. 

Judge Smith believed that there was, in the death 
of the Saviour, a significance not only deeper than 
that which is attached to the death of any other 
teacher from heaven, but different in kind. As to 
the nature of Christ, he dissented equally from those 
who consider him only as a man, and those who wor- 
ship him as God ; agreeing with Milton in regarding 
him as the greatest of created beings, '' the first-born 
of the creation of God." In his theological opinions 
generally, I think he more nearly agreed with the 
matured views of Milton, than with those of any 
other writer. He belonged to the true catholic 
church, and was ready to acknowledge any man as a 
Christian brother, who received the Scriptures as his 
rule of faith, and who strove to mould his life by 
their spirit. " Yes," he was accustomed to say to 
zealous but narrow-minded young men, '' that is all 
very well. It is the way for you to go, if you so 
believe in your heart. But it is not the only way." 
And as he grew in years, and his faith was purified 
and strengthened by trial, he became still more cath- 
olic in his feelings, attaching more importance to 
Christian fidelity, and less to the formulas of creeds, 
and the rules of church discipline. Just in propor- 
tion to his acquaintance with their practical effects 
was the low estimate he put on all ecclesiastical tri- 
bunals, and particularly those existing in New Eng- 
43 



506 LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 

land ; where men come together on business wholly 
foreign to all their studies and pursuits, with no fixed 
statutes, no authoritative decisions, no established 
usages or fundamental principles even for a guide, 
and knowing neither how to examine witnesses, nor 
what sort of testimony to admit. " I have heretofore 
supposed," he said in one of his latest letters, " that 
nothing could happen to place the New England 
ecclesiastical judicial character lower than I esteemed 
it ; but I find in the lowest deep a lower deep." 

No one could more respect the institutions and 
ordinances of religion, or acknowledge more sincerely 
the necessity of a religious character and faith. But 
religion he did not regard as something apart by 
itself. It must, he thought, be inferred from the gen- 
eral tone and complexion of the life. If its power is 
in the soul, it will breathe out and make itself felt. 
He believed it a progressive principle, growing from 
day to day, especially through trials and sorrows, and 
subduing the whole man — thought, affection, con- 
duct, will — more and more to itself. So he believed, 
and no one, I think, can read his life in a truly Christ- 
ian frame of mind, without recognizing something of 
this spiritual progress in his own character. Let any 
one compare, for instance, the letter of consolation 
which he wrote on the death of his brother Robert, 
in 1795, with that which he wrote to Mrs. Walker, 
on the death of her son in 1840. The one is very 
well ; such a letter as an intelligent man, who had 
attended to the subject, might write ; but the other 
no one would have written, who had not felt in his 
own heart, a divine consolation and strength. In 



LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 507 

like manner his affections were all softened, enriched 
and mellowed as by the influence of a higher and 
better spirit. He had been supported through the 
heat and burden of the day ; his religious trust added 
its brightness to the cheering prospects that welcomed 
him home to his retirement from his active duties ; 
and when the heaviest domestic calamities, one after 
another, in quick succession, fell upon him, till he 
was stript of all his friends, ahd left a solitary old 
man, his cheerful confidence in God showed that the 
consolations of a religious faith came to him not as 
strangers, but as friends whom he had long enter- 
tained and loved. Only one other test now remained, 
and to that he was rapidly hastening. 

On the 26th of April, (1842), his brother Samuel, 
who, from the failure of his intellectual faculties, had 
for several years been but the wreck of his former 
self, was set free from his sufferings by death. In 
the letter which the Judge wrote to Ellen, dated Do- 
ver, 29th April, 1842, he said, " I need not tell you, 
my beloved friend, that your mother, sisters and your- 
self have my deep-felt sympathies on this melancholy 
occasion. I am obliged to use the same words others 
use ; but I beg you will believe that my feelings to- 
wards you and the family are not of the common 
kind, and are such as I have seldom before experi- 
enced. They are such as my love for you cannot 
but inspire. I am not ignorant of your great labors 
and sufferings, and have been extremely anxious lest 
your strength should fail. It must be a source of 
heartfelt gratitude to my Ellen, that Providence has 
enabled her to fulfil all her duties. What daughter 



508 LIFE OF JUDGE S3IITH. 

has done so much ? Your retrospections must be of 
the purest and most enduring kind. When the pain- 
ful part ceases, may the pleasant go on increasing to 
the end. There are moments now when I regret 
that I have been absent from Peterborough so long. 
We must draw closer together as time diminishes our 

number Believe me, though sick in body, 

present with you in spirit, and always your most affec- 
tionate uncle." ' 

Judge Smith visited Peterborough in June, and 
returned from his excursion in excellent health. 
Writing to a friend soon after his return, he said, 
'' You have heard me speak of, and indeed have 
seen my niece, Ellen S. Domestic affliction did not 
make her less interesting. . . . Who can love 
sons as they do daughters? Not I. No dispa- 
ragement to Jeremiah. You see I have Mrs. H. 
and her six daughters (C. no less a daughter for be- 
ing a good wife,) in my mind and in my heart. 
May it ever be so. A bad heart would be mended, 
and in time changed, in such society. But may 
none such enter this pure sanctuary of love and all 
that is good and amiable." 

The last time I saw Judge Smith was early in 
July, 1842, when I spent a day or two at Dover. 
He seemed in excellent health, and never with his 
wits more about him. There was perhaps no man 
living, who had at his command more local and per- 
sonal anecdotes, or more of the knowledge not to be 
found in books, particularly in relation to events, or 
to the men who, whether on a large or a small scale, 
had figured in our country from the middle of the 



LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 509 

last century. He seemed never to forget what he had 
once known, but remembered, with extraordinary dis- 
tinctness, minute particulars in the family history of in- 
different persons, with whom he had little or no per- 
sonal acquaintance. The most remarkable thing in 
his memory was that it not only went back, and 
called up, as from the dead, events in which he had 
been interested, or subjects which he had studied 
years before ; but recalled as vividly recent impres- 
sions and what he had recently read. I found him 
in the cars at Exeter. On arriving at the depot 
in Dover, there were two or three young ladies wait- 
ing for him, and before reaching home he was joined 
by perhaps twice that number, who had come out to 
meet him. He appeared in excellent spirits ; in a 
new place indeed, but with those to whom he was 
warmly attached ; "surrounded," as he said, " by his 
old and long-tried friends upon the shelves," seem- 
ing perfectly at home, " in charity with all the 
world," and " in no way anxious about the few days 
to come." There was no diminution of interest in 
books, and in talking of such as he had recently 
read, there was evinced no falling away of memory, 
nor was there an indication of failure in any of his 
faculties, bodily or mental.^ " He was quite wil- 
ling," he said, '' to be cipherized/^ and he fell into 



1 "A little before his last illness," said Mrs. Smith, "J. S. for the 
first time asked me to nib his pen for him. Sometimes, within a few 
years, a sudden film would come over his eyes. The same is mentioned 
of Mr. Roscoe, within, I think, two or three years of his death. We do 
not attend enough to these indications of the breaking up of the consti- 
tution." 

43* 



510 LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 

his new way of living with as much ease as if he 
had been twenty-two, instead of eighty-two. 

In a letter, dated July 13, he said, " I am quite 
well and happy in reading Dr. Emmons's autobiog- 
raphy. I think my forte is allowing myself to be 
happy in the way Providence pleases, and not insist- 
ing on choosing the way and manner for myself." 

The next day, in reply to a letter from Mr. Sparks, 
asking " whether Washington ever wore a wig," and 
giving him some valuable historical information, he 
said, — ^^ Dear sir : It would give me great pleasure 
to be able to put an end to the doubts on the wig 
question. I was in the habit of almost daily seeing 
Washington, from 1791 to 1797 ; staid a night at his 
house in April in the latter year, and it never en- 
tered my mind that the great man did not wear his 
own hair. No man was ever more attentive to dress, 
or had better taste. The earlocks were generally or 
always dressed, frizzled and powdered. I can re- 
member when this was the fashion. I am a careless 
observer of particulars, as it regards the face, eyes, 
hair ; I never could testify as to the color of eyes. 
My impressions are decidedly all anti-wig. 

^' I rejoice at your success in collecting materials 
for a history of our revolution. I hope you will lose 
no time in working them up, that I may have the 
pleasure of reading the work. With much respect 
and esteem, I am, dear sir, your obedient servant." 

From a note to his wife a few days later : " We are 
as silent as the grave, to which some of us are hasten- 
ing. ... I must devote next week to business, but 
intend to do all things with moderation ; for in truth 



LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 511 

my task is easy. I have never suffered things to 
dam up. ... I am lonely, but not unhappy." 

His private affairs w^ere all arranged as he thought 
would be best for his wife and child. He resigned 
the office (which he had held thirty-nine years) of 
president of the Exeter Bank. Mrs. Smith was 
staying at Lee, and in the latter part of the week he 
went from Dover to Durham in the cars, thence 
walked to Lee, a distance of two or three miles, 
passed the day with her, was all gaiety and anima- 
tion, and returned in the evening the same way. 
After his return, he said, in what proved to be his last 
letter to his wife, " You know Monday is my day 
for Exeter. I am busy in my preparation for my last 
official act. Heaven bless you and Jeremiah, prays 
your husband." 

On Monday he went to Exeter, to meet the 
trustees of the academy, and on his return was so un- 
well that he wrote the following letter — the last he 
ever wrote : " To the Trustees of Phillips Exeter Aca- 
demy. Gentlemen : I find myself at length com- 
pelled to abandon the hope of meeting you on 
Thursday, and accordingly now resign both my 
offices of trustee and treasurer. I had intended to 
accompany my annual accounts with statements and 
remarks, as my manner has been, and if sufficient 
health shall be indulged me, will take the earliest op- 
portunity of doing so. 

" I shall ever retain the liveliest sense of the kind- 
ness, courtesy, and I may add the confidence, I have 
at all times experienced in connexion with you. I 
pray heaven to guide you in all your future delibera- 



512 LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 

tions, and that you may continue to execute your 
sacred trust with dihgence and fidelity." 

Wednesday a physician pronounced his disease a 
slow ffever. For two or three weeks he was able to 
be dressed, and sit up part of the day ; many times 
every symptom would be favorable, and then again 
new and distressing pains would arise. His suffer- 
ings were exceedingly acute. But he did not com- 
plain enough to make his case fully known to his 
physician, and his humor remained with him to the 
last. Mrs. Smith having once been called below to see 
some one whom he thought more flippant than pro- 
found, said on her return, " He promised not to 
detain me, but he did, and I verily believe, that when 
he begins to talk, his tongue runs so fast he cannot 
stop it." " It may well run fast," said the Judge, '' it 
carries little weight." 

On the 15th of August liis brother James, of Cav- 
endish, Vermont, the fathe,' of Mrs. Walker, died at 
the age of eighty-six, and eleven days after he was 
followed by Mrs. Walker herself ; the woman so 
dear to Judge Smith, so beloved, so rich in all the 
best affections and charities of a Christian life. On 
the 29th of August, Judge Smith's only surviving 
brother, Jonathan, a man in whom all the elements 
were most kindly mixed, for many years a pillar of 
the town, and who had seemed as much a part of it 
as its hills, was suddenly taken away. It was some 
time before Judge Smith was informed of their death. 
But one day, when he seemed unusually strong, and 
made some inquiries about Mrs. Walker, he was told 
that she was gone. He seemed moved, but agreed 



LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 513 

with Mrs. Smith, that no one could do so much for 
others without destroying her own hfe. He then 
asked about his brother Jonathan, and, on being told 
that he was no more, he replied with much emotion, 
" Well, he was a good man, and lived to a good old 
age. I wish I was lying in the quiet grave with 
them." He afterwards expressed his thanks, that 
Mrs. Walker's father still had a son to watch by him, 
and when told that he too had been taken, he re- 
plied with earnestness, " Good ! blessed be God." 

From the beginning, even when the symptoms of 
his disease were not particularly alarming, he seemed 
to have a strong presentiment that he should not re- 
cover. Once, on his wife's reading to him some- 
thing of his which she had just written down, he said 
with great solemnity, '' Perhaps this is the last saying 
of mine that you will ever record." Two or three 
weeks before his death he sent for her in the night, 
and said, " Elizabeth, you will find me much altered ; 
I am going very fast, and I want you to thank God 
for it." 

During his illness he was tried by excruciating 
pains ; but no one heard from his lips an impatient 
word. One night, while suffering severely, and after 
having said but little for some time, he repeated dis- 
tinctly, and with that perfection of emphasis for 
which he was so remarkable : 

" God of my life, look gently down ; 
Behold the pains I feel ; 
But I am dumb before thy throne, 
Nor dare dispute thy will." 



514 LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 

To the domestics, who waited upon him, he show- 
ed always a sense of gratitude for their kindness. 
" May God reward you," he said, '•' for your atten- 
tions. I will do what I can." He had no fear of 
death. " I have long," he said, " considered myself 
a minute man, like the soldiers in our revolutionary 
war, ready to go at a moment's warning." Death 
was familiar to his thoughts, and not to be viewed 
with alarm, but as the beautiful dispensation of God. 
On being asked, the morning before he died, whether 
he had any fears, he replied, " no, no." 

Mrs. Smith was prevented by a fever from being 
with him the last two or three days of his life. 
When his nurse, a devout Methodist, repeated to 
him, a few hours before he died, the oft-repeated 
words, 

" Jesus can make a dying bed, 
Seem soft as downy pillows are," 

he four times made a motion of assent, and when 
she completed the stanza, 

" While on his breast I lean my head. 
And breathe my life out sweetly there," 

he again, though he could not speak, inclined his 
head four times, and smiled with evident pleasure. 
He died Wednesday evening, September 21, 1842. 
His head had just been lifted up ; he looked upon 
his friends with a placid smile, which seemed like a 
parting benediction, and went away so quietly that 
no one knew when he ceased to breathe. 



LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 515 

'• Well over is a good thing," was the last comment 
signed by his initials in his common-place book, and 
it might have been inscribed upon his tomb. Having 
finished his active duties, he had retired from the 
world, to live for a time in the affections, in the know- 
ledge gained through his long experience, in his 
serene temper, and the heart-felt experience of the 
divine goodness. Before these resources had begun 
to fail, he was called away. Calm and peaceful was 
the going down of his autumnal sun, and when it 
was set, rich and golden memories lingered round its 
path. There is, in truth, nothing sad in the beauti- 
ful and fitting close of a life so filled out and com- 
plete in all its parts. And yet how many are the 
feelings that are touched, as we bid farewell to one 
of the last of those great men, who laid the founda- 
tions of our government, and so manfully upheld it 
in the first days of its peril. May there never be 
wanting others of like character and strength to stand 
by it in every hour of its need ! 

Judge Smith's aversion to show he carried with 
him through life, and wished it to be avoided in 
everything connected with him after death. Accord- 
ing to his request, his body was buried in a space 
which he had left between the graves of Ariana and 
her mother. On a plain marble head-stone, " neither 
better nor larger " than those which he had procured 
for them, is the following inscription, prepared by his 
friends, Daniel Webster and George Ticknor : 



516 LIFE OF JUDGE SMITH. 



HERE REST THE REMAINS OF 

JEREMIAH SMITH: 

IN EARLY YOUTH, 

A VOLUNTEER IN THE CAUSE OF THE REVOLUTION, 

AND W^OUNDED AT THE BATTLE OF BENNINGTON; 

AFTERWARDS, 

A REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS BY THE CHOICE OF 

THE PEOPLE OF NEW HAMPSHIRE, 

AND AN ABLE AND EFFICIENT SUPPORTER OF THE MEASURES OF 

WASHINGTON ; 

A DISTRICT ATTORNEY OF THE UNITED STATES, AND 

JUDGE OF THE CIRCUIT COURT, BY THE 

APPOINTMENT OF WASHINGTON'S SUCCESSOR ; 

IN YEARS YET MORE MATURE, 

GOVERNOR OF NEW HAMPSHIRE, 

AND 

TWICE ITS CHIEF JUSTICE : 

He was, AT EVERY PERIOD OF HIS LIFE, WELL DESERVING OF HIS 
COUNTRY BY HIS COURAGE, HIS FIDELITY, AND HIS DEVOTEDNESS TO 
THE PUBLICK SERVICE ; ECJUALLED BY FEW IN ORIGINAL POWER, PRAC- 
TICAL WISDOM, AND JUDICIAL LEARNING AND ACUTENESS ; SURPASSED 
IN THE LOVE OF HONOR, JUSTICE AND TRUTH, BY NONE, 

He WAS BORN AT PETERBOROUGH, NOVEMBER 29, 1759, AND LIVED 

IN Exeter from 1797 till a few months before his death, at 
Dover, September 21st, 1842 ; always most lovep in those cir- 
cles of domestick affection where he was best known, and 
always a Christian, both by his convictions and by the habits 

OF A life protracted, IN EXTRAORDINARY CHEERFULNESS AND EN- 
ERGY, TO ABOVE FOUR SCORE AND TWO YEARS. 






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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



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